Facebook Messenger has been the most popular online messaging service for year. Nearly all of us can say we use it, or at least have used it in the past. Long gone are the old days of MSN. We are in the Facebook and Whatsapp generation now. Whether we are using the app on our iPhone or Android device, or we are logged in on our laptops, Facebook messenger is simply a great and easy way to communicate.
Facebook Messenger
Having more than 1.2 billion users means that it is quite likely that a majority of our friends are going to be using Facebook. Those who use Facebook automatically get lumped with messenger, so it would only make sense that they use it too. Messenger allows conversation, group conversations, and you can even share your photos and videos with each other.
However, people are getting too good at using messenger.
We find that when we are speaking to people they send us two or three messages in a row, and then our reply can be confusing as they are unclear as to which message we were replying to. This can easily be fixed of course. People just need to be more patient and wait before sending the second message. With our fast paced society this can prove difficult and it would seem our instinct to send multiple things at once is only increasing.
Modern Day Messaging
There was a time when messenger services were so slow that you simply wouldn’t dream of sending three messages at once – not anymore. With ultra-fast internet home internet connections and 4G mobile internet, there is no reason for internet speed to slow someone down.
Going back even further to when people had to write letters makes us truly appreciated how far we have moved forwards. Imagine if when you wanted to speak to your friends who had moved to a new country you had to write a letter. Post times would have been slower too, and then you still have to wait for them to write and send a reply too! It is highly unlikely that we would have written and sent three different letters to the same person in three days – it would have been confusing for them and the response would likely be confusing to us.
Facebook Messenger and Confusion!
With messenger it seems that we have forgotten to be patient and send our thoughts as they are created. We don’t mean to say that everyone is guilty of doing this, but we know most of us probably are. And when we ask two ‘yes or no’ questions and only get one response saying yes – we are bound to get frustrated and confused.
Luckily, it would seem that Facebook have picked up on this and have announced a new feature that will put an end to the confusion. Much to our relief. The new feature will allow people to respond to individual messages and not just add a new message underneath the ones already sent. This will make it much simpler to follow what exactly is relating to what. Those who have asked multiple questions will be able to understand which question is being answered and those replying to questions will not have to rewrite every question just to avoid confusion on the other end. It’s a win-win situation.
Facebook Messenger Reactions
This new feature is called Facebook Messenger Reactions.
Facebook released reactions on its standard platform a while back and they have been slowly growing in popularity. However, it would seem that we were too used to only having the ‘like’ option as it is taking us time to use the reactions as Facebook had originally anticipated. We do feel that having the option in Facebook Messenger will greatly increase our usage of reactions though. This might carry on outside of the messaging service and increase the popularity of reactions on Facebook overall.
Group Conversations
Facebook Messenger Reactions will also make group chats much simpler to follow. Group chats on Facebook Messenger can be very confusing at the moment. Particularly group chats with a large number of participants. More active group chats with only a few participants can also be confusing, especially when viewed from a mobile device.
Reactions sets out to simplify group chats and make the entire group chat experience a simplistic and enjoyable one. Each person can react to a message differently, and the person who send the message can see each individual’s response even if the conversation is still ongoing.
Yes or No?
One of the responses is apparently going to be a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’. This simple yes or no reply will make questions much easier in one-on-one and group conversations. Imagine someone was to ask a simple questions such as ‘Who would like to come for dinner at mine tonight?’ in a group chat. The answers could have been really hard to count before if people were writing messages on top of messages.
Not with reactions. One can simply put a message in a group chat and check that message later to see how each person responded. Of course with more complex questions this isn’t going to work – but it is a good way to simplify something that has been too complicated for too long.
Facebook Messenger Mentions
The great news is that Facebook Messenger Reactions is not the only new feature to be added to Facebook Messenger. Let us introduce Facebook Messenger Mentions.
Mentions is a feature that will work well in group chats. Often we pick up a phone and there have been so many messages in some group chats that we only quickly scan through them. Sometimes we might miss important information.
Mentions is way to tag a person in a message. Their name will stay highlighted in the message and they will also receive a notification on Facebook that they have been ‘mentioned’. This saves time for all of the group and means we won’t miss important information in group chats again!