Facebook Messenger Celebrates 10th Birthday With New Features

Facebook has announced new features for Messenger to celebrate its 10th birthday.

This month we’re thrilled to be celebrating Messenger’s 10th birthday with you. That’s 10 years of connecting more than a billion people around the world and helping people feel together even when apart. 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.

Here's a look at the new features announced...


Poll Your Friends with “Most Likely To” Games
Today, we’re thrilled to introduce a fun twist on Polls, one of Messenger’s most-loved features, with the launch of 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 just write your own prompt. To play a poll game in your group chat, tap “Polls” and select the “Most Likely To” tab to pick a question and select the names of chat participants to be included as potential answers.




Birthday Gifting using Facebook Pay
For Messenger fans in the US, we are introducing a new way to receive cash gifts directly through Messenger. When a friend sends you a cash gift for your birthday, you will be notified on Messenger and on Facebook with their gift message wrapped and accompanied by virtual balloons. Once you confirm your Facebook Pay details, the cash gift will be instantly deposited into your bank account. To send a birthday cash gift, go to the Facebook mobile app and tap the button that appears alongside your friend’s birthday posts in your Facebook News Feed or their profile.





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

You can also send a catchy birthday song Soundmoji and use a Message Effect to add a burst of confetti to your celebratory message or even wrap it up with a bow.




A New Way to Share Contacts
When it comes to celebrations, the more people the merrier! We’re introducing a new way for you to easily share Facebook contacts with friends through Messenger. Simply select the contact you want to share, access the chat settings and tap “Share Contact” under the “More Actions” section.




Bonus! Sneak Peek: Customize Your Conversations with Word Effects
Today, we’re excited to share a sneak peek of Word Effects, an exciting 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 a delightful cascade of the emoji you selected. You now have the perfect way to highlight inside jokes, relive your memories and add extra delight to your favorite phrases, like that one song lyric stuck in your head or “Happy Birthday” (we suggest the emoji). Word Effects will be coming to Messenger in the near future, so get excited for that update.


You can download Messenger from the App Store for free.

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