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Facebook is reportedly working on cross-platform business messaging
Facebook is reportedly working on pulling Instagram direct messages into businesses' Facebook page inboxes. That would allow businesses to handle messages from both platforms in the Pages Manager app on mobile and the web, according to Axios. For now, the only private conversations page managers can address within the app are from Messenger.
Facebook finally lets you unsend messages in Messenger
Facebook announced today that all users can now remove messages sent on Messenger -- a feature that had previously only been used by Facebook to delete messages sent by company executives. Users will now have a 10-minute window to unsend any message delivered through Messenger, whether it was sent to a single person or to a group chat.
Facebook Messenger's camera fakes portrait mode photos
Facebook Messenger's camera just caught up to Instagram's in a few key areas, and then some. To start, you can snap software-based portrait mode photos -- if you don't have a dual-camera phone (or one with clever AI photography), you can still get that blurred background for your headshots. You can also shoot animated Boomerang loops if you want to capture a brief bit of movement without recording a whole video.
Facebook is testing a Watch Party-like feature for Messenger
Earlier this year, Facebook rolled out Watch Parties, a way for group members to watch the same videos together. Now, it looks like the company is testing a similar feature for Messenger. TechCrunch reports that code spotted by mobile investigator Ananay Arora points to a Watch Party-like feature for Messenger that lets everyone in the chat "control the video and see who's watching" as well as "chat about the same videos at the same time."
Facebook will soon give you 10 minutes to unsend messages
Previously reserved for its top brass, Facebook's unsend message feature will soon be available to all. But you'll only get 10 minutes to take back that DM before it's read. The short window makes WhatsApp's hour-long deletion period seem generous in comparison. The Verge spotted the perk listed as "coming soon" in the release notes for version 191.0 of Messenger's iOS client.
Facebook is still growing at a slow but steady pace
It feels like for the better part of the past two years, every few months we talk about how Facebook hasn't been having an easy time. In 2018 alone, the company's faced several problems, such as the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal and, of course, the recent data breach that exposed private data of 29 million Facebook users. While we won't see the effects of the latter until next quarter, if at all, Facebook has kept raking in cash and users despite everything -- even if its growth has slowed down a bit. For Q3 2018, Facebook reports it has grown to 2.27 billion monthly active users, a 10 percent year-over-year increase, which is complemented by $13.78 billion in revenue.
James Patterson will preview his next novel in Facebook Messenger
James Patterson, the best-selling book factory in human form, is letting readers interact with the characters from his upcoming novel The Chef by speaking to them through Facebook Messenger. Starting October 30th, you'll be able to receive video and sound clips from characters via Facebook's massively popular messaging platform, according to Variety.
Facebook is finally decluttering Messenger
Facebook has just announced a brand new Messenger app, and it promises to be a lot simpler than previous iterations. In Messenger 4, you'll get three tabs instead of nine. There's the Chats tab which houses all of your conversations, the People tab where you can see who's online and the Discover tab, which is focused more on connecting you with businesses. The latter will give you access to the platform's Instant Games feature as well.
Facebook is reportedly making a video chat camera for your TV
Facebook's Portal cameras might just be the start of the company's plans to bring video chat to your home. Cheddar sources claimed that the social network is making a "camera-equipped device" that brings video chat and streaming services (including Facebook's own) to your TV. Nicknamed Ripley, it's tentatively slated to launch in spring 2019. A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment.
Facebook Groups now supports 250-person chat rooms
If your Jimmy Neutron Facebook Group has felt a bit dull, that's probably because the social media giant didn't allow members to jump into a giant, early '00s-style group chat Well, Facebook plans to gradually roll out a new feature that will allow Groups to launch specific sub-chats up to 250 members. Not only that, groups can start audio or video calls with up to 50 members.
Facebook’s next big augmented reality push is multiplayer games
Even as Facebook faces extreme pressure from Congress on issues like foreign interference and fake news, the company has to remain focused on keeping users tied to its many products. After all, that's how it makes its money. One of the ways Facebook is doing that is by going in heavy on augmented reality. Aside from bringing the technology to its News Feed and main app's camera, Facebook sees AR as the perfect medium to bring a different layer to one particular service: Messenger, where friends interact with one another on a daily basis.
DOJ wants access to suspect's encrypted Facebook Messenger chats
The US government wants Facebook to help break Messenger's encryption to get access to a suspect's voice conversations in a criminal case, sources told Reuters. The case, an investigation of the MS-13 gang, is under seal so filings aren't publicly available. But the sources stated that Facebook has contested the DOJ's demand, and may be held in contempt of court for refusing.
Facebook's Messenger Kids app lets children start friend requests
Facebook's Messenger Kids app has so far been strict about adding friends. Early on, it even required that children count their parents as friends. The social network is ready to loosen things up, however... if only a bit. It's giving its Android and iOS apps an optional feature that lets kids start friend requests. When you turn it on, Facebook creates a random four-word passphrase for your child -- they just have to provide that phrase to their potential Messenger Kids friend. Parents still have to approve requests, but this saves them from having to handle the entire process, and simplifies matters if they aren't friends with their young ones.
Facebook Messenger will translate Spanish messages for you
Facebook Messenger can now translate messages from Spanish to English (and vice versa) for you, whatever it is you and your friend are talking about. The feature, called M's translation suggestions, debuted at F8 in May as one of Facebook's new tools for businesses and used to only work for chats between buyers and sellers in Marketplace. Starting today, though, you'll see a "Translate to English/Spanish" module pop up when someone messages you in either language, so long as you're in the US or Mexico.
Instagram reaches 1 billion monthly users
After surpassing 800 million monthly active users last September, we knew it was only a matter of time before Instagram would reach that coveted 1 billion mark -- and today is that day. The company has announced its latest milestone at an event in San Francisco, where it's also launching IGTV, its new standalone long-form video app. With 1 billion monthly actives, Instagram continues to grow at a tremendous pace since being acquired by Facebook in 2012, when it had just 40 million. If that's not impressive, then what is? Instagram now also joins other Facebook-owned social apps that have hit that remarkable number: Messenger (1.3 billion) and WhatsApp (1.5 billion). And then, of course, there's Facebook, which is at 2.2 billion and counting. Despite the privacy controversies of late, it's clear people love Facebook products, and Instagram's insane growth is only one of the many perfect examples of that.
Facebook is placing autoplay video ads inside Messenger
Facebook previously admitted that it's running out of places for ads in the News Feed, which doesn't sound good for a company making billions of dollars from them. To solve that issue, the social network turned to its other apps and properties -- last year, for instance, it started testing static ads within Messenger. Now, 1 Hacker Way is taking things a step further by putting video ads inside its chat application, which will even start playing as you scroll. The company told Quartz that the new ad category will start appearing within its chat app for a small set set of users on Monday, June 25th.
Facebook will send fewer 'you are now connected' Messenger reminders
For those who spend the majority of their time online plugged into Facebook, the red dot notification feels like an urgent call to action. It pops up via tags, comments, Likes and other NewsFeed activity, but it can also appear alongside more infuriating actions like the dreaded "You are now connected on Messenger" alert. The good news is that Facebook thinks it might appear too often, and will soon cut the number of unnecessary reminders with the help of machine learning.
Polls are here for Facebook Messenger Stories
Facebook announced quite a few changes and additions to its Messenger app at its recent F8 event, including a planned redesign and a way to buy Nike sneakers and other products in AR. Now the company is bringing polls over to Messenger Stories, making it simple to share a status update and ask your buddies what they think about it.
Progressive groups want FTC to split Facebook into multiple companies
Today, Axios reports that progressive groups will launch an advertising offensive aimed squarely at Facebook. Their mission? To convince the FTC to break up the company. They also want users on competing social networks to be able to communicate with one another, as well as the implementation of stronger privacy rules. "Facebook is in a competitive environment where people use our apps at the same time they use free services offered by many others," a Facebook spokesperson told Engadget. "The average person uses eight different apps to communicate and stay connected. People use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger because they find them valuable, and we've been able to better fight spam and abuse and build new features much faster by working under one roof. We support smart privacy regulation and efforts that make it easier for people to take their data to competing services. But rather than wait, we've simplified our privacy controls and introduced new ways for people to access and delete their data, or to take their data with them."
Facebook and Nike just gave hypebeasts a reason to use Messenger
Nike hasn't been coy about how much it loves using augmented reality to sell hyped sneakers, since the technology can be used to fight the bots (automated systems) that are so beloved by resellers. And today, at the F8 developers conference, Facebook revealed a partnership with the sportswear giant that will let sneakerheads buy limited-edition pairs through the Messenger app... in AR. To show this feature off, Nike dropped a pair of Kyrie Irving signature shoes during the F8 opening keynote, which were dubbed the "Red Carpet" and sold out within minutes after the Facebook announcement.
