Using Facebook Messenger just got easier as users in select countries will now just need a phone number to sign up for the popular mobile app.

Facebook announced Wednesday, June 24 that users in Canada, the United States, Peru and Venezuela can now access Facebook Messenger even if they don't have a Facebook account.

The world's largest social network is starting to roll out an updated version of Messenger encompassing all its features such as group chats, video calling, sharing photos and stickers, available to anyone with a phone number. New users will alternatively be able to access Messenger via an added option on the landing page that says, "Not on Facebook?"

After clicking that, the new user can then sign up with their name, photo and phone number, CNet noted.

The move is quite surprising citing that Facebook already attracted over 1.44 billion users across the world to its platform, of which 1.25 billion are monthly mobile users.

But as established by Wall Street reactions to quarterly earnings reports by Facebook and its social-media rival Twitter, growth in user numbers is extremely important. Facebook's last year acquisition of WhatsApp was considered by some an attempt to boost user numbers.

Facebook's ploy to ramp up usage of its standalone Messenger app is not surprising considering that the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company is regularly paying attention to Messenger, boosting the app with peer-to-peer payments in March and location sharing in June.

Messenger has 700 million monthly users, and this move is capable of bringing in new users who have either departed from the complete Facebook experience or sidelined it, The Verge noted.

That being said, Facebook noted that there are still advantages to signing up for both.

"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."