Items tagged with Messenger
Video calls have become all the rage over the last few months and Zoom remains one of the most popular choices for group video chat. However, recent security issues have caused many to look for alternatives. Facebook recently launched “Messenger Rooms”, a video chat service for up to 50 users and it just became widely available to users. Here is how you can set-up a group call on Messenger Rooms. How To Create A Facebook Messenger Room If you are the host of a video chat, you will need a Facebook account. If you are creating the “room” through a mobile app, you will want to double-check that you have the most recent version of the Facebook and Messenger mobile...
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Welp, the days of being able to sign up for Facebook's Messenger service without also being a member of the social network are apparently over. If you have friends and family members who have been bugging you to hop on board Messenger, you will need to create a Facebook account to do so, if you do not already have one. This applies to new users only. Anyone who already registered a Messenger account without an accompanying Facebook account can continue to use the messaging service as normal, at least for the time being. "If you’re new to Messenger, you’ll notice that you need a Facebook account to chat with friends and close connections," A spokesperson at Facebook said in a statement...
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There is evidence to suggest that Facebook might be reintegrating its standalone Messenger app into the social network, rather than having the two exist as separate entities. The feature is currently being tested, and presumably if all goes well, Facebook and Messenger will get back together, allowing users to send messages from within Facebook. Messenger's roots trace back to 2008 when it debuted as Facebook Chat. Two years later, Facebook overhauled the messaging platform, and in 2014 it split from Facebook as a standalone Messenger app for mobile devices. A year after that, Facebook ported Messenger to the web, and also released a version for Tizen. Throughout the years, Facebook has fleshed...
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Dark Mode seems to be all the rage these days with desktop and mobile operating systems (and their complementing apps), and now Facebook is getting in on the action. The social network giant has now included a new dark mode in its popular Messenger app, and it’s relatively easy to enable. The dark mode in Messenger can be accessed either with Android or iOS versions of the app, and you’ll first need to send the crescent moon emoji (clever) to one of your contacts (or to yourself), after which you’ll some fancy animations and a message telling you that you’ve found dark mode. You’ll be then given the option to enable it in settings, which should turn your...
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Do you remember when Facebook didn't have any advertisements? That was a long time ago, and it was always inevitable that ads would infiltrate our timelines. Fair enough—it is a free service, after all, and Facebook has to generate income to keep it going. Over time, however, they've become more pervasive and, in some cases, annoying. Like autoplaying videos. And soon, you could see video ads in Messenger while chatting privately with your friends and family members. Ads are not new to Messenger—they have been around for about a year in a half. But what is new to Messenger is the presence of video ads that appear in users' inboxes, next to messages from their contacts. It's currently...
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Most people understand that when sending a text message, through Messenger or pretty much any other messaging service, it stays out there until when and if the recipient decides to delete it. Apparently that is not the case for Mark Zuckerberg, however, who was able to delete some of his outbound communications in Messenger on the recipients' side of things, according to three sources that spoke with TechCrunch. The sources claim that certain messages received from Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives were erased from their Messenger thread, while their own replies remained. TechCrunch says it viewed an email receipt of a Facebook message from 2010 that proves they are telling the truth,...
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Oh, the horror! A catastrophe of epic proportions occurred yesterday when *GULP* Facebook Messenger went offline for a short period of time, leaving millions of users around the globe unable to chat, send animated GIFs, or even share emojis with one another through the standalone messaging app. As you might imagine, this unfathomable event caused a panic on Twitter, where users vented their frustration. The moment of dread came earlier this morning when a Facebook employee acknowledged the outage, confirming widespread fears that the problem was on Facebook's end. "We can confirm there is currently an issue regarding Messenger that is under investigation by our engineering team as a top priority,"...
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Facebook and PayPal are strengthening their ties and have announced that users in the U.S. can now send and receive money person-to-person over Facebook Messenger. The integration also brings a PayPal customer service bot that can handle questions and requests for help right from within the Facebook Messenger window. Messenger has always had a payment system integrated that would allow friends to pay each other directly, but that service takes money directly from the payer's bank account via a debit card. That money is then sent directly to the person receiving the funds and places it into their checking account instantly without fees for either party.The PayPal integration will certainly still...
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Feel left out not seeing advertisements in Facebook's Messenger? Don't fret: that's going to be changing real soon. Following what Facebook touts as being a successful test in Australia and Thailand, the social media giant is planning to expand advertising in its Messenger service to the rest of the world. For advertisers, this is a great move, although the verdict remains out as to whether or not it will cause Messenger fans to revolt. In an example provided, it appears that the advertising never appears inside of chats, but will instead be nestled in the contact list screen. Located here, the ads wouldn't be too intrusive - especially not to the extent they would be if they broke up one of...
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The Opera team has gone and completely revamped its Opera browser for Windows PCs and Macs. Codenamed "Reborn," the newest version of Opera puts a heavy emphasis on chat with native integration of Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram. The idea is to allow Opera users to chat with friends while browsing the web, and do it without having multiple windows (and programs) open. "Browsing and chatting simultaneously is cumbersome and inefficient now, as you need to switch between tabs when responding to a message. We believe this needs to change. That’s why we bring you Opera Reborn, the first browser to allow messengers to reside within your browser, without the need to install any extensions...
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If a major holiday looms, then you can be sure that Facebook has something up its sleeves. With Halloween right around the corner, the company has decided to infuse the reactions we use to express our thoughts on posts, and give us virtual masks to wear while broadcasting through Facebook Live. As seen in the shot above, Facebook Live's interface now features a carousel of different masks to wear, which based on the examples given, look to be quite natural when applied (it's just a matter of time before we see if that translates to real use). Fortunately, the fun doesn't have to end after Halloween; Facebook says that while some of the masks are here just for a limited time (the witch and pumpkin,...
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Are you having trouble keeping track of all of the different messaging apps that Google offers? Don't feel bad; a lot of us do. In fact, it feels like Google has a number of redundancies in this space, and with its latest move, we get the feeling that the consolidation has begun. Take Allo, for example, which is set to take the place of Hangouts in the official "Google Mobile Services" package going forward. That means that vendors won't need to bundle Hangouts with their devices, although they still have the option to should they want to offer a more complete package. Even if they don't, however, you would still be able to download it from the Play Store, which isn't a grand inconvenience....
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Have you ever sent a message that you immediately regretted even writing? If so, Yahoo has your back. Its revamped Messenger app is now available for Windows and Mac desktops. Austin Showmaker, Senior Director of Product Management stated, “With Messenger’s desktop notifications, you can multitask at your computer without having to worry about missing an important message from family, friends, or coworkers again.” Yahoo relaunched its Messenger app last December. The app was specifically redesigned with group chats in mind. Yahoo Messenger users can “like” any comment, photo, or GIF which can be especially useful, if for example, a group votes where to eat lunch by “liking” a comment. Users...
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“This tape/message will self-destruct in five seconds.” That was a refrain we heard on the 1960s TV show Mission Impossible (and later in the Tom Cruise-helmed movies). Facebook is taking a page from this self-destructing message trope with the addition of end-to-end encryption for its hugely popular Messenger platform. “We’ve heard from you that there are times when you want additional safeguards,” said Facebook in a blog posting. “Perhaps when discussing private information like an illness or a health issue with trusted friends and family, or sending financial information to an accountant.” End-to-end encryption will allow you to carry on one-to-one conversations with a single person on just...
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Facebook’s chatbot functionality for Messenger launched over two months ago to great fanfare, and the company is now ready to deliver its first major update for the platform. In case you haven’t been keeping up with the latest on Facebook Messenger, chatbots allow you to access sports scores, order flowers, inquire about flight information or get the latest weather updates (among other things). Since chatbots were introduced at F8, over 23,000 developers have signed up to use Facebook’s Wit.ai bot engine and over 11,000 bots have been deployed. To help developers and Messenger users get a better grasp of chatbots and to make them easier to interact with, Facebook has added a raft of...
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Have you ever noticed that when a service becomes almost incomprehensibly large, it can begin to care less and less about what people think about it? Some might feel that way about Facebook, a company that time and time again has forced changes on its users that haven't been very well received. A major example of this in recent years has been with the forced transition to Facebook Messenger, something that caused thousands of users to give the app a 1-star rating for. Simply put, people were not happy. As that move happened a couple of years ago, we don't hear too much about the hate anymore, much like we don't hear much about the angst held towards Google for shutting down Reader. It could be...
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For some folks, Facebook's Messenger mobile app has felt like a stick in the mud. Prior to a couple of years ago, messaging people through Facebook was very easy - you could either load up the Facebook app, the Facebook website in a browser, or, if you were so inclined, use the dedicated Facebook Messenger app. Today, your options have become "optional". When Facebook forced us all to transition over to the Messenger app if we wanted the ability to keep in contact with people while on-the-go, a second option for desperate people remained: just load Facebook up in a mobile Web browser, and chat to people that way, in effect mimicking the experience on the desktop. Well, if you've been using this...
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Facebook is home to nearly 1.6 billion monthly active users, so if you're a business that sells products online, why not tap into that resource? That's what Newegg is doing. The online vendor of computer parts and assorted other items reckons that many of its customers are already on Facebook, so for the sake of convenience, it's giving them the ability to chat with customer support using Messenger. This seems like a minor thing on the surface, but it's actually a pretty big deal for both companies. For Newegg, it's an expansion of its customer support and mobile shopping experience. Messenger is one of the most popular apps around, and it now joins Newegg's other customer support options that...
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Middle Tennessee State's upset win over Michigan State combined with Yale's surprise victory over Baylor pretty much decimated everyone's March Madness bracket this year. Then there was Northern Iowa's half-court buzzer beater to topple lower ranked Texas, just in case your bracket was somehow still intact. It's been an exciting tournament and if you just can't get enough hoops action, Facebook has your back with a hidden basketball game in its Messenger application. The hidden gem isn't quite as exciting as college hoops, but it's addicting. It's also simple—there's a basketball on the bottom of the screen and a hoop up above. To shoot the rock, you just swipe upwards towards the middle of the...
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Think fast: how often do you use your virtual assistant? If your answer is along the lines of “Huh?” you’re not alone, but we’re getting the distinct impression that we’ll all be very familiar with virtual assistants soon. Apple and Microsoft have been heavily ramping up the functionality of their assistants this year and now Facebook is entering the field with its own assistant, Facebook M, which exists in Facebook Messenger.Although we won’t hazard a guess as to whether Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Facebook’s M virtual assistant will eventually win the market share war, M seems like a strong candidate for the “Most Uninspiring Name” award. M’s capabilities are much more interesting...
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Do you ever find yourself in a situation where Facebook Messenger is somehow not available? It's hard to believe, given the fact that an app is available for the three big mobile operating systems, and anyone logged into Facebook can access it from within the UI. Well, if you do happen to want another option, you might be pleased to learn that Facebook now allows you to dedicate an entire browser page to only Messenger, simply by hitting up Messenger.com and clicking the big blue button to log in. As the shot above highlights, this website is optimized for any platform, and could prove useful for those who simply refuse to install the Messenger...
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Have you ever tried collecting money owed from a friend or family member? Sometimes it's painless, and other times it's like pulling teeth from a penguin -- impossible, in other words. Facebook has found a way to make it rather easy. No, it won't send cousin Vinny to collect the debt, but it does allow you to send and receive money through Messenger for free. Let's say you and a buddy are chatting about the Red Sox, and through the course of the discussion, you both decide to catch the game versus the Orioles on April 17th. You look it up and discover tickets will run $100 each. Your buddy gives a thumbs up, so you purchase the tickets. Rather than coordinating schedules to...
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