How to deactivate Messenger account

There is a major difference between deleting and deactivating a Facebook account. Deactivating a Facebook account will temporarily delete the account and this can be reactivated. Meanwhile deleting Facebook will permanently remove all data and can't be restored.

However, deactivating a Facebook account will not deactivate Facebook Messenger and it needs to be cleared separately. Read on to know how to deactivate Facebook Messenger.

How to Deactivate Facebook Messenger

In order to deactivate Facebook Messenger, one must deactivate the Facebook account linked to it. Once deactivated, Facebook Messenger can be deactivated from inside the Messenger app. Check out these step-by-step instructions to deactivate Messenger.

• Open Messenger app
• Open settings after clicking on the display picture option
• Go to the upper left-hand corner
• Select Legal and Policies
• Choose Deactivate Messenger on the next screen
• Enter account password
• Tap on Continue

Once deactivated, no 'friends' will be able to see the deactivated profile in the app or send messages in existing conversations. Once the Facebook account is deleted, the user will lose the messenger account access also. One can log back into the Messenger app using the username and password anytime to reactivate the Facebook Messenger account.

Facebook to shut down facial recognition

In the latest development after rebranding its parent company, Meta on Tuesday announced that it was shutting down facial recognition for Facebook and that it was deleting the templates of billions of people. It further revealed that those who have opted in will no longer be automatically recognised in photos and videos as the company will delete more than people's individual facial recognition templates.

"In the coming weeks, we will shut down the Face Recognition system on Facebook as part of a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in our products. As part of this change, people who have opted into our Face Recognition setting will no longer be automatically recognised in photos and videos, and we will delete the facial recognition template used to identify them", the company said in a blog.

According to Facebook, this move will also impact Automatic Alt Text (AAT), which creates image descriptions for blind and visually-impaired people. As of now, more than a third of Facebook's daily active users have opted into the Face Recognition setting.

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