Now you can use Messenger without a Facebook account; users in four countries no longer required to have accounts to access IM app

Facebook has announced that it is now opening up its Messenger app for people in selected countries who do not have accounts on the social media giant.

In a blog post on the Facebook newsroom, software engineer Louis Boval introduced the update, which will affect users in Canada, the United States, Peru and Venezuela. To sign up for Messenger without a Facebook account, all that is needed is a phone number. Users in the countries mentioned will have a "Not on Facebook?" option at the login screen of the app.

"With this update, more people can enjoy all the features that are available on Messenger - including photos, videos, group chats, voice and video calling, stickers and more," Boval said.

Facebook's vice president of messaging products David Marcus explains the move further. "We all have examples of people in our lives who are not on Facebook but would want to have the Messenger experience. It's really important that we can serve those people and enable them to try out Messenger for themselves," Marcus told USA Today.

However, Boval reminds users that linking a Facebook account to a Messenger account has its own benefits, such as multi-device messaging across mobile devices, the web and tablets.

This new update mirrors an earlier move by the company for users in some Southern Asian countries, as well as in South Africa and Australia, in which users are also no longer required to have a Facebook account to use the messaging service.

It can be recalled that Facebook came under fire from several sectors after it removed the chat component of its main app and forced its users to download and install the Messenger app on mobile devices in order to reach their contacts. After that rocky start, however, Messenger has grown to be one of the most successful apps on both Android and iOS, with over a billion users and counting.