Facebook Is Going To Stop Bothering You To Send Gift Cards To Your Friends On Their Birthday

Facebook is about to stop asking you to send your friends gift cards and other digital presents, according to a Re/code report.

The company will discontinue Gifts on August 12 - you have until then to send your acquaintances the Chili's gift card of their dreams.

Whether you realized it, Facebook gave up on Gifts before today's announcement. Users used to be able to send each other physical gifts, but that feature hasn't been active since last summer.

It seems Facebook envisions itself as a platform for sales, rather than a merchant itself. The company has begun placing "Buy" links under certain advertisements.

"We'll be using everything we learned from Gifts to explore new ways to help businesses and developers drive sales on the web, on mobile, and directly on Facebook," company spokesperson Tera Randall told Business Insider.

Also this week, Facebook will stop letting iOS and Android users send messages from the flagship app. Facebook will begin pushing users to download its Messenger app if they want to chat with their friends.