Facebook for Windows Phone coming soon

MANILA, Philippines — Windows Phone will be getting another much anticipated app soon.

Messenger, the standalone Facebook messaging app is set to arrive on the Windows Phone Store in the coming weeks. 

Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Head of Windows Phone Joe Belfiore speaking at the opening of the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona said the app is “looking good… we will have it for our customers soon.” 

Belfiore revealed Microsoft has been working with Facebook on the Windows Phone implementation of the popular app for a while now. This “highly personal approach” is what the Microsoft executive cites as the reason behind the steady growth of the platform. 

On its company’s blog this week, Belfiore also said that the Windows Phone store has reached a critical mass of over 240,000 apps, with 500 new apps added each day. 

Facebook Messenger will be the latest addition to a recent wave of iOS and Android staples to arrive on Windows Phone version including Instagram, Waze, and Vine.

These new arrivals are essential for Windows Phone as it struggles to remain competitive. The lack of essential apps on the Windows App store has been the biggest sour point for consumers. The Windows Phone store registered over 4 million downloads in 2013.

In November last year, Belfiore promised to eliminate the huge discrepancy on the number of available apps between Windows Phone and the more popular iOS and Android platforms. The Microsoft executive said on Twitter that this so-called “app gap” will be eliminated by the end of this year.

In his recent blog post he reiterated the promise, “There’s a number of more great apps coming soon…. Stay tuned as you hear more compelling demanded user apps coming for Windows Phone.”

Windows Phone currently ranks a distant third behind iOS and Android in the stiff competition as the world’s most successful mobile platform.  — Rappler.com