My friend @denisz used to ask me to install multi platform messaging/chat apps.
I remembered that one day he told me to try Beluga — i oftenly spell it wrong as ‘Belagu’ :P — on my iPhone
After few weeks trying, we found that Beluga is not good enough or at least not interesting for us anymore.
We now stick to Kik and WhatsApp.

So, why i write about this little whale 2am in the morning?

Some of you may be dont know that Beluga has been bought by Facebook around March 2011.

I think because of Facebook chat only alowing one-to-one chat only, they need a system that will enable the Facebook users to do group chat. And by acquiring Beluga system, the social network giant is getting serious with the idea.

Unlike its past acquisitions, Facebook has acquired both the product and the team of Beluga. Well, there are only 3 ex-Google persons in Beluga team :P

But today the story has changed.

Beluga app will be shutted down. The little white whale will swim to the sunset.

Acording to Beluga blog,

“Starting November 11, you’ll no longer be able to use Beluga to send messages,
but you can still get to your old messages on the Beluga app and website.
If you want, you can also download an archive of your pods.

On December 15, the Beluga service will shut down completely,
and you’ll no longer be able to access your old pods or messages.”

Is Beluga that bad so Facebook want to kill it? Nope.

I think because Facebook has launched the Facebook Messenger App (based on Beluga tech of course, last update is Oct 26, 2011). The Facebook Messenger App is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry in 22 languanges ;)

That is why they need no whale anymore.

And these are the Facebook Messenger features:

• Send messages instantly to other friends who have Messenger
• Chat with friends who are on Facebook
• Get free push notifications for incoming messages
• Add location and photos to messages
• Reach friends via text message if they don’t have Messenger yet
• Access sent and received messages on both Messenger and Facebook
• Create group conversations for making plans on the go
• Add more friends to group conversations at any time
• Control alert and location settings for each conversation

Bloody Messi! He made hattrick within 15 minutes!

Beluga is now friends with Facebook (http://belugapods.com/fb)
Beluga is swimming into the sunset… (http://belugapods.com/shutdown)