If you have an Android phone and a Facebook account, then Facebook is looking for you. The social networking site is looking for beta testers to squash the bugs and road test the latest beta versions of Facebook Messenger for Android before they are released to the general public.

Applying is both simple and painless. All you have to do is join the beta testers Google group. Once that's done, you need to allow beta downloads - just go to Google Play and click "Become a Tester".

Then it's just a case of downloading Facebook Messenger for your phone and turning on automatic updates. Facebook is promising multiple updates so you will have plenty to play with and test.

Obviously it goes without saying that, being beta, things could come to a grinding halt and break down at any second. So be aware of that if you are in the middle of a marathon IMing session.

And as part of being a tester, you need to send Facebook reports if anything breaks, so they can locate the critter and nuke it. So you can't just shrug your shoulders, say "meh" and pretend nothing happened.

As The Next Web points out, this isn't the first time that Facebook has employed the use of beta testers to find bugs and improve the product before launch. Last year, before the Android version of the main Facebook app came out, beta testers were checking it out.

You have to wonder though, with all this Messenger development, where WhatsApp fits into all of this. Is it time to look for a WhatsApp replacement?

Source: The Next Web