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Facebook Live can now broadcast Messenger games
Facebook is celebrating the first year of games on Messenger by introducing new titles and a few new features, starting with the ability to livestream them to friends. If you want to show your friends list how good you are with Everwing -- or how much you suck at it -- all you need to do is tap that new camera icon in the upper right corner of the game screen to stream on Facebook Live. You'll then be able to choose which audience you want to share it with before you post it like you would any other Live video. This particular feature is will be available starting today, but Facebook has another offering in store for 2018.
Pinterest makes it easy to share pins on Facebook Messenger
Has it been while since you've chatted with a Messenger bot? If you use Pinterest religiously, you might be tempted pick up the habit again. The visual discovery social network has launched a Messenger bot and a chat extension that make it easier to share pins with friends. With the chat extension, you'll be able to share pins from Pinterest within the Messenger app itself. And if you receive a pin from your friend, you'll be able to expand that pin to show the full image and browse related pins without even leaving the chat application. Pinterest says it built the extension to load fast, since it expects people to use it on the go.
Facebook's latest feature test looks like Snapchat's streaks
Facebook has been emulating (read: copying) Snapchat for a while now, whether through Instagram or on its own. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that it's at it again. This time the company is playing around with a feature for Messenger akin to Snapchat's streaks (direct snaps sent back and forth between friends, which come with emoji rewards). Twitter user @CaseSandberg spotted the experiment, with Facebook confirming to Mashable that it is in fact testing it, complete with emoji-like icons. The social network claims it's a way to glean fun facts about your pals, but it's clearly just a ripoff aimed at drumming up more engagement.
Facebook Messenger will now send your photos in 4K
Facebook Messenger has recently gotten some pretty nifty additions, like the ability to share Apple Music and Spotify tunes, send cash to friends and new video chat filters. Now the company is improving another visual feature: photos. Now you can send and receive photos via the messaging service at 4K resolution at the same speed as your regular photos, according to Facebook.
Facebook says messaging apps aren't turning people into hermits
Think people are replacing face-to-face communication with gadgets and chat apps? A Facebook study says you're dead wrong. Based on the survey commissioned by the Messenger team for the 25th anniversary of the first text ever sent (December 3rd, 1992), those who message their friends more often are 52 percent more likely to meet up with people in person than those who don't send messages as much. Makes sense, since the more you keep in touch, the more likely you are to set up meetings, parties and dates. "What we found is that messaging turns out to be not a wedge, but instead a bridge bringing us closer together," the team said.
Facebook Messenger lets you send cash to friends with PayPal
Messenger started making it easier to pay your friends for dinner back in 2015 when it introduced the option to transfer money in-app with a credit or debit card. If PayPal has always been more convenient, though, you'll love this collaboration: Facebook and the payment service have teamed up to give you a new way to split the bill. You can access the feature the same way you'd pay with a card. Simply tap the blue plus icon and then tap the green Payments button to bring up the two existing options.
'Small number' of Russian Facebook election ad accounts used Messenger
According to David Marcus, Facebook's VP of Messaging Products, a "small number" of the 470 Russia-linked accounts that attempted to influence last year's US elections also used Messenger. He said so in an interview at Wall Street Journal's D.Live conference, and though he wouldn't reveal the exact number (because it's an "active investigation"), he said that he and others at Facebook are working with authorities to figure out what happened.
Apple Music tunes are now available inside Facebook Messenger
We've known for a while that both Spotify and Apple Music were coming to Facebook Messenger. Spotify was integrated as a chat extension this past August with an AI-powered group playlist feature. Now Apple Music is getting its own presence as the streaming music service has officially launched inside the social network's Messenger system.
Facebook's data-saving Messenger Lite is available in the US
Facebook Messenger has gotten to be a bloated mess. Whether it's suggested text replies and stickers or it pestering you to send money seemingly whenever it notices a dollar sign, sometimes all you want to do is chat with a friend via text. Nothing more, nothing less. Well, if you've been cursing Zuckerberg's name when any of the above happens, know this: Messenger Lite is now available in the US along with Canada, the UK and Ireland.
Live Nation’s Messenger bot finds concerts you won’t want to miss
Entertainment company Live Nation is making it easier to find concerts you'll actually be interested in with a tailor-made gig-finding experience that learns your location and musical preferences. Open the Concert Finder bot through Messenger, search your favorite artists or musical genre and over time it'll learn your preferences, so you can consult the bot about upcoming shows that you might actually want to go to, rather than sifting through thousands of maybes. The more you use it, the smarter it gets. And once you've found a show you're interested in you can pull friends into the interface to chat about logistics and tickets, which you can then purchase directly through Messenger (if you've already got a Live Nation account you can link it up for faster check out). There are dozens of Facebook Messenger bots out there that claim to make your life easier, but if you're a live-music fan, this one could prove genuinely useful.
Facebook's 'M' AI assistant will help you choose a movie
Facebook had grand plans for its in-Messenger AI assistant, M, when it was launched in 2015. While the service hasn't quite yet lived up to the hype, the company is continually rolling out new features in a bid to make using it a fun experience, and to make it easier to get things done. From today, users in the US will see three new suggestions when using the app.
Facebook's Instant Articles will no longer appear in Messenger
Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is working on a paid-content model with partner publishers, the company has made further tweaks to the way users can view external articles. According to TechCrunch, Instant Articles will no longer appear in Messenger. The faster-loading article format, hosted by Facebook itself, arrived in Messenger last July and was denoted by a lightning bolt icon on the top right corner of some links shared within the platform. This content would load up to 10 times faster than a standard mobile web article.
Facebook's Messenger AI will sniff out Spotify tracks for you
Facebook Messenger integrated Spotify into its chat extensions back in April of this year, then added a way to create group playlists within the chat app a month later. Now, the music streaming service is showing up in M, Facebook Messenger's AI assistant. The virtual helper monitors the words in your conversation, then pops up with hopefully relevant responses like "you're welcome," "no problem," or suggestions like "send birthday greetings" or "save bookmark." Now, though, when you mention playing music in a chat, you might find a new little popup that says "Find Music" next to the Spotify logo.
Facebook Messenger update makes business bots easier to deal with
After launching Messenger 2.0 in April, Facebook has just dropped the platform's 2.1 update. Once again, most of these changes are here to help businesses, with Facebook focusing on improving how its Messenger bots work in the latest update. Messenger now has built in natural language processing (NLP), which means the platform can detect seven key traits of any message before passing it onto a businesses' bots. The addition of NLP helps Messenger flag crucial information from an inquiry, like date and time, location, phone number, amount of money and email addresses. This makes life easier for consumers too, meaning that they're more likely to get the right help quickly, rather than spending a frustrating conversation talking to a bot that fails to register the crucial info.
Facebook will test Messenger ads worldwide
You might be cringing at the thought of seeing ads in Facebook Messenger, but Facebook doesn't appear to have those reservations. The social network has revealed that it's expanding its beta test of home screen Messenger ads worldwide in the weeks ahead. It'll be a slow rollout, but the targeted promos should be widely visible by the end of 2017. At least the company isn't shy about why it's pushing forward.
Facebook Messenger's AI assistant helps you save links for later
Two months ago, Facebook finally rolled out M, its AI-powered personal assistant, to the general public. Well, sort of. Instead of the limited edition of M that would answer your every beck and call (it had a lot of human help), the public version of M has to be triggered with certain words. A few features at launch include suggesting stickers to use in conversations or prompting an Uber ride if M detects you need to get somewhere. Today, Facebook is adding even more M suggestions to the mix: a "save it for later" function, birthday wishes and call initiations.
Spotify hopes you'll create shared playlists in Facebook Messenger
It can be fun to create shared playlists on streaming music services -- it's a window into your friends' tastes. You don't necessarily want to wade through an app to add tracks, though, and they usually shut out pals who can't use the service. That's where Spotify thinks it can save the day. It's launching a Group Playlists chat extension in Facebook Messenger that lets anyone in a chat add songs to the queue, even if they're not using Spotify. Once someone has started one of these collective playlists, you just have to tap a button to start adding tracks.
Facebook reportedly has a teen-friendly chat app in the works
As Snapchat continues to rule among the teen set, Facebook continues to take a more active role in encouraging younger folks to use its own communication apps. According to a report at The Information, code inside the main Facebook app points to a new, unreleased app called Talk. The code alludes to parent-centric features for filtering who teens can talk to, saying "Talk is a messaging app where you fully control the contacts." Another line in the code states that children will talk to parents in Messenger. Another line from the code appears to reference additional features that might actually appeal to teens. One comment in the code says, "Kids love using the creative tools in "Talk" to play games and share fun masks with family and friends," according to The Information.
Facebook’s next feature could be Instagram notifications
Facebook and Instagram might exist as individual services, but under the surface their ties run deep. Instagram users often test major new features before they're eventually ported across to the News Feed and it only takes a push of a button to share photos and videos with a wider selection of friends and family. Just as the Facebook and Messenger apps have grown closer, Instagram may also be integrated even deeper into the platform. TechCrunch reports that the social network is trialling a new feature that displays notification counters from the major Facebook-owned apps and allows users to quickly switch between them.
Facebook makes Messenger easier to use for social butterflies
First it added stickers, then it was games. Now, Facebook's latest Messenger update simply aims to make the popular app even easier to use. Starting today, the chat service is getting a bit of a makeover, introducing a few subtle tweaks to Messenger's home screen in a bid to make it more user-friendly. The service is now split into three tabs, letting users instantly access their messages, see which friends are 'Active now' and lastly, go straight into their favorite Groups. As well as this top level organization, the update also introduces a new bottom bar, which has tabs for home, calls, camera, people and games. A red dot next to one of these tabs will indicate that someone's tried to reach you, meaning that users on the go can easily see who's communicating with them through Messenger, and by which method. Given all the new features Facebook has crammed into Messenger recently, this much needed tidier UI is definitely a welcome addition.
