Facebook M Shutting Down After Long-Running Beta Test

Today Facebook broke its long-running silence on M, but not to make the announcement we expected: Facebook will be shutting down M, and though the name will live on, the service won't in the form that was announced back in 2015. Users who have access to M have been receiving messages claiming that the service will be shut down on January 19, with the company later confirming its plans to The Verge.

Of course, there's an astoundingly high chance that you aren't seeing such a message today. The Facebook M beta, which has been running since the service was announced more than two years ago, was only ever available to a few thousand people in the Bay Area, so most of us never got the chance to see what M could do. With the human-trained portion of the assistant shutting down today, we likely won't get that chance either, barring an about-face from Facebook at some point in the future.

However, M will still exist in some form after the beta has closed on January 19. M will still be able to make recommendations in your Messenger chat, using cues within your conversation to suggest things like payments, reminders, plans, and stickers. While that's a far cry from the recommendations and assistance M was supposed to provide with human backing, Facebook still gets some benefit out of its research.

We'll keep an ear to the ground to see if anything else ultimately comes from the work on M in the future, but for now, it'll be limited to popping into your Messenger conversations from time to time.