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Facebook's (News - Alert) popular standalone Facebook Messenger application, which was first launched for Windows 7 back in March, may be on its way to the iPad, according to recent rumors. While the app has been available for Android (News - Alert) devices and the iPhone for a short time now, the Internet-based messaging app has yet to make the leap to Apple's popular tablet.

According to reports, however, a beta version of Facebook Messenger is currently being tested for the iPad which allegedly sports a number of the same capabilities as its iPhone (News - Alert) counterpart. The handy app simply provides users with the ability to use Facebook's chat feature without having to sign into Facebook from a browser. However, those using Facebook's chat from any version of the dedicated app can chat with those logged in with the browser version and vice versa.

As to be expected, the iPad version of the app looks and acts basically the same as the iPhone one, but is bigger. As such, the iPad version would still sport group chat capabilities as well as the as the ability to see where the people you're chatting with are located on a map. The Facebook Messenger app can also send push notifications to ping users when a new message is received.

Using chat on Facebook's stand-alone iOS app is apparently a bit of a pain to use, so iPad users are likely to be relieved when the Messenger app finally gets released. When the app was first released on the iPhone, many claimed it would essentially kill text messaging and while this didn't exactly happen, still others wonder what kind of affect Facebook Messenger will ultimately have on competitors in the same space — a market mostly filled with independent start-ups. Even the most established messenger app has nothing on the integration and sheer popularity of the Facebook ecosystem.

As this is still just a reliable rumor, no release date has been set for Facebook Messenger for the iPad but owners of Apple's (News - Alert) PC killer should keep an eye out.