Facebook Inc. has dumped dozens features into Messenger since it split the service from its core app in 2014, adding everything from in-app games to peer-to-peer payments.

Now, Messenger chief David Marcus is conceding that Facebook may have gone a bit overboard with the app, and he promised to make Messenger more user-friendly this year.

“Over the last two years, we built a lot of capabilities to find the features that continue to set us apart,” Marcus said in a blog post today. “A lot of them have found their product market fit; some haven’t. While we raced to build these new features, the app became too cluttered. Expect to see us invest in massively simplifying and streamlining Messenger this year.”

Marcus did not elaborate on how exactly Facebook plans to streamline the app, and it’s not clear whether the company intends to trim rarely used features or it will simply hide them behind a less cluttered interface. The social media company will likely try a combination of the two, with Messenger’s usage data serving as a guide for which features should be kept and which can be safely dropped.

Facebook has been working to turn Messenger into its own full-fledged app platform, and so far the company seems to have been successful. Messenger now boasts more than 1.3 billion monthly active users, making it one of the most popular chat services in the world, and the platform supports thousands of apps ranging from simple mobile games to official apps from major international brands like Domino’s Pizza, Travelocity and others.

Hundreds of companies have also embraced Messenger has a tool to communicate directly with customers, either to offer support or to provide services powered by automated chatbots, and Facebook plans to improve on this aspect of Messenger this year. “Look for more creative ways that we’ll evolve Messenger as a true Customer Care channel in 2018,” said Marcus, “but even more importantly, this is clearly where the industry is moving as it not only benefits the growth of the business, but frees up Customer Care agents to support the business in other, more productive ways.”

Facebook’s other plans for Messenger this year include expanding real-time communication features, improving group chat and adding more visual messaging options like gifs and emojis. The company will also work on expanding its recently launched Messenger Kids, a chat app for children that comes with strong parental controls. Marcus called Messenger Kids a “visual-first app,” and he added that “not only will you see more from Messenger in visual messaging this year, but this is where the industry is heading, and we won’t be looking back.”

Marcus added that Facebook’s goal is to “make Messenger the easiest and most delightful way for people to spend time together in happy and harder times.” This echos a similar sentiment voiced last week by Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, who announced changes to News Feed that would favor posts by friends and family over public posts by brands, businesses and media.

“Now, I want to be clear: by making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down,” Zuckerberg said last week. “But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable. And if we do the right thing, I believe that will be good for our community and our business over the long term too.”

Zuckerberg’s announcement came just one week after he revealed that his personal challenge for 2018 would be to “fix” Facebook.

Photo: Facebook