{"id":25955,"date":"2021-08-26T11:58:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T11:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/messenger-celebrates-its-10th-anniversary-with-new-features-and-a-plan-to-become-the-connective-tissue-for-real-time-experiences.html"},"modified":"2021-08-26T11:58:29","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T11:58:29","slug":"messenger-celebrates-its-10th-anniversary-with-new-features-and-a-plan-to-become-the-connective-tissue-for-real-time-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/messenger-celebrates-its-10th-anniversary-with-new-features-and-a-plan-to-become-the-connective-tissue-for-real-time-experiences.html","title":{"rendered":"Messenger celebrates its 10th anniversary with new features and a plan to become the \u2018connective tissue\u2019 for real-time experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Messenger today announced a handful of new features: poll games, word effects, contact sharing and birthday gifting via Facebook Pay. But beyond the fun features, Facebook has been testing<\/a> a way to add voice and video calls back into the Facebook app, rather than on Messenger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are testing audio and video calls within the Facebook app messaging experience so people can make and receive calls regardless of which app they\u2019re using,\u201d a representative from Facebook told TechCrunch. \u201cThis will give people on Facebook easy ways to connect with their communities where they already are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although earlier in Facebook history, the Messenger app had operated as a standalone experience, Facebook tells us that it\u2019s now starting to see Messenger less as a separate entity \u2014 more of an underlying technology that can help to power many of the new experiences Facebook is now developing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been focused more on real-time experiences \u2014 Watch Together, Rooms, Live Audio Rooms \u2014 and we\u2019ve started to think of Messenger as a connective tissue regardless of the surface,\u201d a Facebook spokesperson told us. \u201cThis is a test, but the bigger vision is for us to unlock content and communities that may not be accessible in Messenger, and that the Facebook app is going to become more about shared real-time experiences,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

Given the company\u2019s move in recent months to integrate its underlying communication infrastructure<\/a>, it should come to reason that Facebook would ultimately add more touchpoints for accessing its new Messenger-powered features inside the desktop app, as well. When asked for comment on this point, the spokesperson said the company didn\u2019t have any details to share at this time. However, they noted that the test is a part of Facebook\u2019s broader vision to enable more real-time experiences across Facebook\u2019s services.<\/p>\n

\n

Facebook introduces cross-app communication between Messenger and Instagram, plus other features<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Despite the new integrations, the standalone version of Messenger isn\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n

Facebook says that people who want a more \u201cfull-featured\u201d messaging, audio and video calling experience\u201d should continue to use Messenger.<\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong> Messenger<\/p>\n

As for today\u2019s crop of new features \u2014 including polls, word effects, contact sharing and others \u2014 the goal is to celebrate Messenger\u2019s ability to keep people in touch with their family and friends.<\/p>\n

To play the new poll games, users can tap \u201cPolls\u201d in their group chat and select the \u201cMost Likely To\u201d tab \u2014 then, they can choose from questions like \u201cmost likely to miss their flight?\u201d or \u201cmost likely to give gifts on their own birthday?\u201d, select names of chat participants to be included as potential answers, and send the poll.<\/p>\n

Contact sharing will make it easier to share others\u2019 Facebook contacts through Messenger, while birthday gifting lets users send birthday-themed payments on Messenger via Facebook Pay. There will also be other \u201cbirthday expression tools,\u201d including a birthday song soundmoji<\/a>, \u201cMessenger is 10!\u201d sticker pack<\/a>, a new balloon background, a message effect and AR effect to celebrate Messenger\u2019s double-digit milestone.<\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong> Messenger<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, word effects let users manually input a phrase, and any time they send a message with that phrase, an accompanying emoji will float across the screen. In an example, Messenger showed the phrase \u201chappy birthday\u201d accompanied with a word effect of confetti emojis flooding the screen. (That one\u2019s pretty tame, but this could be a remarkable application of the poop emoji.) The company only shared a \u201csneak peek\u201d of this feature, as it\u2019s not rolling out immediately.<\/p>\n

In total, Facebook is announcing a total of 10 features, most of which will begin rolling out today.<\/p>\n

Messenger has come a long way over the past decade.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, Facebook acqui-hired<\/a> a small group messaging startup called Beluga, started by three former Google employees (apparently, a functional group thread was a white whale<\/a> back then \u2014 simpler times). Several months later, the company unveiled Messenger<\/a>, a standalone messaging app.<\/p>\n

But three years into Messenger\u2019s existence, it was no longer an optional add-on to the Facebook experience, but a mandatory download<\/a> for anyone who wanted to keep up with their friends on the go. Facebook removed the option to send messages within its flagship app, directing users to use Messenger instead. Facebook\u2019s reasoning behind this, the company told TechCrunch at the time, was that they wanted to eliminate the confusion of having two different mobile messaging systems. Just months earlier, Facebook had spent $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp<\/a> and woo international users. Though removing Messenger from the Facebook app was controversial, the app reached 1.2 billion users<\/a> three years later in 2017.<\/p>\n

Today, Facebook has declared that it wants to evolve into a \u201cmetaverse<\/a>\u201d company, and on the same day as the antitrust filing last week, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a product that applies virtual reality in an impressively boring way: helping people attend work meetings<\/a>. This metaverse would be enabled by technologies built by Facebook\u2019s platform team, noted Vice President of Messenger Stan Chudnovsky. However, he added that people in the metaverse will still need platforms like Messenger.<\/p>\n

\n

Zuckerberg is turning trillion-dollar Facebook into a \u2018metaverse\u2019 company, he tells investors<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think messaging is going anywhere, even in the metaverse, because asynchronous communication is going to continue to exist,\u201d Chudnovsky said. People will still need to send messages to those who aren\u2019t currently available to chat, he explained. Plus, Chudnovsky believes this sort of communication will become even more popular with the launch of the metaverse, as the technology will help to serve as a bridge between your phone, real life and the metaverse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything is gonna happen it\u2019s more, not less. Because messaging is that things that just continues to grow with every new platform leap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting: Sarah Perez<\/em><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/espdaFet3tE\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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