Facebook has harpooned the Beluga whale.
The social networking giant acquired Beluga, a group messaging application, in March. And ever since, Facebook has been slowly phasing out the application.
As of today, users of the Beluga messaging application for smartphones will no longer be able to send messages.
Beluga allows users to organize friends’ cellphone numbers into groups known as pods. Users can then send mass messages to those pods whether the members who comprise the pod have a smartphone with the application or not.
Users can still view any old messages they have sent or received until Dec. 15, according to a Beluga news release. After that date, users will no longer be able to access old messages or pods.
Students who use Beluga have expressed concern that phasing out the application will affect communication between their friends, especially in the Greek community.
“I have a Beluga for my sophomore Delta Zeta pledge class,” elementary education sophomore Ansley Simmons said. “We use it to tell members when meetings are happening, when applications for various things are due and other events. Because of this announcement by Beluga, communication is going to be harder, and we just won’t be on the same page.”
Landscape architecture sophomore John Bland said the Greek community is not the only group that will be affected.
“I have a Beluga group for several groups of friends,” Bland said. “It isn’t a huge deal, just a small hiccup, although communication between my friends is going to be a little harder until we move on to another method of group messaging.”
Facebook’s answer to this communication predicament is its newest creation, Facebook Messenger. It is a stand-alone mobile app that lets users send messages to friends from their phones, according to Facebook’s Help Center.
Facebook Messenger is integrated with Facebook messages and chats, so users can access all their conversations in the application. Each message sent through Messenger is also saved as part of ongoing conversations on Facebook.
The application can also send messages to a cellphone number and is currently available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices.
 
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Contact Joshua Bergeron at [email protected]