Messenger Is Celebrating 10 Years With New Features

Facebook Messenger which is Facebook’s own instant messaging service is celebrating 10 years by adding new features! 

“This month we’re celebrating Messenger’s 10th birthday! 🎂 We’re grateful to everyone who’s joined us in creating 10 years of memories built from countless chat threads, late night video calls, sharing the latest meme GIFs and picking out the perfect emoji or sticker to capture the mood. 

We’ve pulled together a birthday bundle of 10 product features — many of which are starting to roll out today — that will help you create more memories with your friends and family and feel closer together.” says Loredana Crisan, Vice President of Messaging Products, Messenger.

Let’s have a look at how Messenger is celebrating 10 years with new features.

Poll Your Friends with “Most Likely To” Games

Messenger has introduced Poll Games. You can now play “Most likely to” in polls to help you discover what your friends really think about topics like who is “most likely to give gifts on their own birthday? 🥳”, “most likely to fight zombies while everyone else runs away? 🧟‍♀️” and “most likely to miss their flight? ✈️”, or you can write your own prompt.  To play a poll game in a group chat, tap Polls then select the “Most likely to” tab to pick a question. Select the names of participants in the chat who are to be included as answers to the question.

Birthday Cash Gifting Using Facebook Pay

In the US, Facebook has introduced a new way to receive cash gifts directly through Messenger. When a friend sends a cash gift for a user’s birthday. The user will be notified on Messenger and Facebook with their gift message wrapped and accompanied by virtual balloons. After confirming Facebook Pay details, the cash gift will be instantly deposited into the bank account.

Birthday Expression Tools

To amp up the celebratory mood, try out Messenger’s new Birthday chat theme and their specially curated “Messenger is 10!” sticker pack. Fill the sky with purple and blue balloons with “Birthday Balloon 360 background” and blow out birthday candles with the “Birthday AR effect.” 

Users can also send a catchy birthday song via soundmojis and use a Message Effect to add a burst of confetti!

A New Way to Share Contacts

Facebook has introduced a new way for users to easily share Facebook contacts with friends through Messenger. The following can be done by selecting the contact that has to be shared, then accessing the chat settings and tapping  Share Contact under the More Actions section.

Sneak Peek: Customize Your Conversations with Word Effects

Facebook writes: “We’re also excited to share a sneak peek of Word Effects, a new way to pair words with the emojis that have meaning to you and your friends. When used in your conversation, these words will trigger the selected emoji to fill your screen. You now have the perfect way to highlight inside jokes, relive your memories and add extra delight to your favorite phrases, like that song lyric stuck in your head or “Happy Birthday” (we suggest the 🎉  emoji). Word Effects will be coming to Messenger soon, so get excited for that update.”

With everything new coming up, the team at Messenger is eager to keep building features and experiences which users will enjoy for the next 10 years and beyond.

Siddhartha Dange

A fandom whiz weaving stories from neurons to frame a narrative while being a cerevisaphile and a patron for endless conversations.

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