Facebook has a dedicated chat app for both iOS and Android called Messenger and it is slowly making the app more and more independent of the main Facebook app. Facebook chat on the web is still well integrated into the website itself and I’m not complaining. I do not want to have to install a desktop app or visit a different website just to chat with my friends on Facebook. What I would like is to be able to pop out the chat window and close Facebook altogether. Facebook Chat Pop-Outs is a Chrome extension that lets you do just that. If you’ve used Google Hangouts then you will be familiar with this option being present there in the form of a little arrow button on the chat window’s title bar. The extension adds the same button and when clicked, your chat window pops out of the browser but remains fully functional.

Install the extension and refresh Facebook. In the screenshots below, you can see the difference and the newly added pop-out arrow button in the image on the right.

Click the arrow and the chat window will pop out, looking something like the image below. You can see that the chat window resembles the messaging interface you see when you visit the Messages page on Facebook. You can add people to the conversation, all keyboard shortcuts remain fully functional, messages can be deleted and searched, and the window, if minimized, gives an audio notification to alert you when a new message has been received.

You can send images and attach files the same as you normally could when chatting with the window inside Facebook. You lose no functionality whatsoever and you are free to close the tab you have Facebook open. You will continue to receive messages and the title bar will also show a number badge for when you have a new notification on Facebook.

Install Facebook Chat Pop-Outs From Chrome Web Store

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