Facebook delivery boy is to get a visual update and a host of new features including support for chat topics, custom reactions, and soon to be selfie stickers and vanishing mode. The changes are part of the revised Facebook messaging platform announced at the end of September, with which Instagram users can communicate with Facebook users for the first time.
While Instagram Users had to opt for the updated new functionality in order to gain access to the cross-platform communications capabilities. Messenger users don’t have to make similar choices.
Instead, Facebook says this morning This cross-app communication with Instagram will soon be available to users across North America. (At the time of the Instagram announcement, Facebook had not yet confirmed which markets would receive the update first.)
Credit: Facebook
Messenger users don’t need to take any action to get the new functionality either. These are also automatically provisioned to users as soon as they are available in the user’s region.
On the visual side, the updated Messenger logo is a notable change intended to reflect Messenger’s cross-platform messaging capabilities. It looks more Instagram-esque now, with shades of blue, purples, and pinks instead of being Facebook blue.
Credit: Facebook
Messenger’s default chat color will also be adapted to the new style.
New chat themes, including love and tie-dye, will now also be available to users, as well as custom reactions that allow you to respond with a variety of emoji instead of the standard set on offer today.
More features are expected to be “soon” available, including selfie stickers that you can use to decorate your own photo with a sticker, and a disappearance mode that makes chats disappear.
These are the same features that Instagram users got in their latest update.
To date, Messenger had received a number of new functions, including most recently the ability to watch videos with friends and family in Messenger or in Messenger rooms.
Facebook’s decision to retain users on a new messaging platform with cross-app communication capabilities will make it more difficult for users to move to other competitive messaging apps. Why bother when one app can reach two of the biggest social networks? (And one day it may include WhatsApp as well.)
This will also make it harder for Facebook to do its separate business if it is requested by regulars in the future.
Today’s announcement follows Antitrust report last week issued by the U.S. Judiciary Committee, which recommended that Congress consider a number of potential remedies for Facebook’s monopoly power, including splitting parts of its business as a solution. However, regulators may be more focused on how Facebook wins competitors to gain an advantage than how it runs its apps like Instagram and Messenger that it has today.