It's Hard to Tell What Kind of Company Facebook Wants to Be

Facebook has multiple personalities. One day it's a place to hang out with friends, the next it's where you share your news, next it's something having to do with videos. It just can't make up its mind. Today it wants to be your cell phone, with the release of its new app Facebook Messenger, an app that allows you to Facebook message not only with your friends, but also with your other cell phone contacts.

With the latest application, cell-phone users never have to use their phone's applications to message their friends--they can use Facebook instead. It's almost as if Facebook wants to take on the mobile device space, explains TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid:

"In the longer term Facebook clearly has ambitious plans around messaging. Messenger isn't going to replace your phone's SMS application any time soon because all outbound texts come from one of Facebook's shortcodes rather than your phone number. But if all of your friends are using Messenger anyway (and that's a big if), then you won't need to SMS them in the first place."

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.