Last month, Facebook announced that they were going to roll out a new version of Messenger. The update called Messenger 4 promised a simpler interface and a night mode for the app.
Up to now, Facebook Messenger has nine tabs, most of which are not utilized by many users. Messenger 4 now has a more user-friendly set of three tabs, namely Chats, People and Discover. The Chats section now features a new Camera and New button placement at the top of the screen, for smoother communication. Users can also view Stories, find their list of friends, and check out who is active in the People Tab. The Discover Tab is where you can find news, play Instant Games, and connect with your favorite businesses for amazing deals.
A color gradient option is also introduced in the update. Users would have the ability to choose color changing chat bubbles for their conversations, making a great contrast to the almost all white background of the app. This may be a small thing, but it would be enjoyable to watch the chat bubbles change colors as conversations continue. The color gradients are also customizable, based on the users’ moods and conversation topics.
The usual functionality features of the Messenger app are still the same since the main variation of the Messenger 4 is the visual aspects of the app. Users can still easily connect with their loved ones through chat/video, play online games with peers, and other features that made Messenger special.
Facebook might’ve met their interface promise, but they have yet to fulfill the night mode one. This feature is planned to be included in future updates. The new update will be available soon.