By Louis Boval, Software Engineer

With Messenger, we’ve been focused on creating the best messaging experience possible by giving people a fun and easy way to connect and express themselves with friends and contacts. If you’re in Canada, the United States, Peru or Venezuela, we are starting to roll out a new way for you to sign up for Messenger – without a Facebook account.

With this update, more people can enjoy all the features that are available on Messenger – including photos, videos, group chats, voice and video calling, stickers and more. All you need is a phone number.

Here’s how it works:

On the Messenger welcome screen, you will now see an option that says “Not on Facebook?”

From there, you can sign up with your name, phone number and a photo.

For those who have Facebook accounts, there are many benefits to using your Facebook credentials when signing up for Messenger. People can easily message with their Facebook friends and contacts, access their Facebook messages and take advantage of multi-device messaging across mobile devices, the web and tablets.

For more information, please visit the Help Center.

Update as of July 16, 2015: The ability to sign up for Messenger without a Facebook account is now available globally.