Facebook’s Instant Games feature to migrate from Messenger to main app

In a bid to make the Facebook Messenger app lite and faster, the social media giant will migrate Instant Games on to the main Facebook app.

“With our focus on creating a central Instant Games experience on Facebook, and as Messenger moves to be faster, lighter and simpler, we recently started migrating Instant Games play sessions from Messenger to Facebook and the Facebook Gaming tab,” Global Director of Games Partnerships, Leo Oleb announced on Saturday. In a blog post, Oleb also informed that the transition would be done in phases.

Instant Games was first on the News Feed before it was introduced in Groups and then on the Lite app. The Instant Games kept expanding which included classic games such as Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Galaga along with titles such as Uno and Words With Friends.

The games are a hit with casual gamers as one could play these games with friends. Moreover, they also have cross-platform support.

“Starting later this summer, Instant Games will no longer be playable directly in the new version of Messenger on iOS,” Oleb said in a blog post.

For a seamless transition, gamers in Messenger will have access to games via thread updates and chatbots, even as gameplay will switch to Facebook, said the post.

This move is being seen as an attempt to declutter and streamline Facebook Messenger, which many see it as overstuffed with irrelevant features. Last year, Facebook began streamlining the app and as the site pushes its gaming features such as user meetups and e-sports streaming, it was better to move the Instant Games to the main gaming hub instead.