Faster, Sharper, Neater...The All New Facebook Messenger For Android And iOS
It's not immediately obvious that the latest version of Facebook Messenger for iOS and Android is a Facebook app at all. Its name is Messenger, not Facebook Messenger, and it comes in a new shade of lighter, more vibrant blue.
By Sadho Ram — 02 Mar 2013, 06:34 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
New Facebook Messenger Update Lets You Make Free Voice Calls
After Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $16 billion, some wondered what would happen to the company's existing messaging app. Now it seems they had nothing to worry about. The company updated the app Thursday with a major new feature — one that allows users to make free voice calls to their Facebook friends.
androidcommunity.com
The new feature is similar to voice calling built in to other messaging apps such as Viber and WeChat. Users can make phone calls to friends for free, provided they have at least a wifi connection. Now, when you view Facebook contacts from within Messenger, a phone icon appears next to their name. Tap the icon to start a phone call. Both participants need to have a wifi or data connection to make or receive calls.
9to5mac.com
The latest update to Messenger on iOS now includes voice calling for any country in the world, and this includes Malaysia. The latest version of Facebook Messenger is available to iOS and Android users. The Windows Phone version has not yet been updated with the feature.
mobileworld.my
Facebook has released an updated iOS Messenger app with an added ability to message real-life contacts, who aren't on friends list
Among the top new things about the application is its faster start-up time. So after dealing with the ‘biggest offenders’ holding up the ability to let people dive into Messenger as quickly as possible, Facebook is finally able to boast about offering users a speedier experience.
The Facebook app also comes with a fresh new look and easy navigation to see recent conversations, people on Messenger, and settings.
Image via indianexpress.comFrom now onwards, it’ll be easy to find out if a particular friend is using the application by looking for the blue circle with a wavy white line at the center, next to their name. With this update, the developers have ensured you have the freedom to heckle people you text even if they’re not your Facebook pals.
financialexpress.comAnd users will need to register their number by confirming it so that others can find them. The overall interface has been broken into three neat sections and browsing through them is as simple as swiping to the left or right.
Each of these sections lines up recent conversations, settings or the list of contacts you chat with.
Facebook has completely redesigned its Messenger app for Android to try and take on rivals such as Whatsapp and Snapchat
Its name is 'Messenger', NOT Facebook Messenger, and its icons, text, and buttons have been graded a new shade of lighter, more vibrant blue.
insidefacebook.com
If not for the chat window's big Like button, you might mistake Messenger for yet another new app to let you send photos and stickers to friends. And that's kind of the point.
theverge.com
This past spring, Facebook made it abundantly clear that it didn't intend to sit on the sidelines as messaging apps like WhatsApp gathered hundreds of millions of active users per month. Facebook Home, the company's most progressive piece of mobile software ever, elevated chatting with friends above everything else on your Android device.
recombu.com
The latest version of Messenger for Android and iOS hopes to take this idea to the next level, because it doesn't want to feel like part of Facebook.
insidefacebook.com
Messenger wants to be something else entirely: a mobile to mobile messaging network like WhatsApp or Kik. The redesigned app begins testing with a random group of Android users today, and will come to everyone on iOS and Android "in the coming weeks."
theverge.com
The new Messenger has largely the same functionality as its predecessors, but features a brand new design meant to emphasize its distance from the main Facebook app. Most importantly, friends' avatars are now circular, and have a little badge on them if a friend is using the Messenger app.
appadvice.com
In other words, it's instantly clear if a friend you're chatting with is using Facebook Chat on the web, or has the Messenger app on their phone and will receive your chats instantly. This distinction is part of what makes apps like WhatsApp compelling.
recombu.com
In terms of functionality, there are a host of under-the-hood improvements to make sending and receiving messages faster, says product manager Peter Martinazzi. There are also some front-end tweaks that makes the app faster — especially on Android, where the SMS texting feature, which let you text friends who don't have Facebook, has been removed.
theverge.com
While Facebook won't let you text a phone number from Messenger, the company plans to use phone numbers in a new way: to identify its users, just like in WhatsApp. Upon opening Messenger for the first time, it will ask you to provide your phone number.
insidefacebook.com
Then, the app can match you with people whose numbers you have, but whom you aren't Facebook friends with. Facebook guarantees your messages will reach somebody's inbox if you have their phone number. "The Facebook friend graph is an important graph for you, but everyone also has a phone graph," says Martinazzi.
theverge.com
Facebook Trusted Contacts password recovery launches globally
FB announces the global launch of its Trusted Contacts feature. This will enable users to designate between 3 to 5 friends who can be contacted if there are any problems ...
Users will now be able to designate their Trusted Contacts in advance and change them if necessary through the Security Settings dashboard.
insidefacebook.com
Facebook said the idea is that once these friends are identified as “trusted contacts” through the user’s security settings, Facebook will provide each of them with a special code
networkworld.comFB suggests users talk to friends in person or over the phone to avoid an impersonator sweeping in via email. Trusted contacts can be chosen via Security Settings within your ...
mashable.com
The Trusted Contacts name sort of rings true here as you will need to pick contacts that are truly trusted. Basically, think of your trusted friend as being someone you would feel comfortable leaving a spare house key with. But also as someone that regularly uses Facebook and perhaps most important, a friend that will be wiling to help out in your time of need.
Image via amazonaws.comFB rolls out replies & threaded comments on page posts and popular profiles
The feature will automatically activate for profiles with more than 10,000 followers.
Image via wordpress.comAfter experimenting with the feature for months, Facebook is today introducing threaded Page replies, an addition the company says will improve conversations across the social network.
theverge.com
The new feature introduced by the latest update allows for easy post and comment management that allows page owners to interact directly with individual post authors.
thedroidguy.com
Even better, Facebook says replies carry another benefit: the most engaging and active discussions will automatically rise to the top of your Page.
cnn.comStarting today, you should be able to opt-in to the new comment structure. Simply go to your page, click “edit page,” and go to “manage permissions.”
webpronews.com
If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you should see you should see a Replies filter box you can check off to “Allow replies to comments on my Page.” It should be under “Post privacy gating.”
webpronews.com
It all started with a deck of cards
How did Facebook's new simplified newsfeed, social network's Jane Justice Leibrock has just explained, it was as simple as shuffling cards.
engadget.com["Leibrock gave focus group subjects a stack of cards reflecting their recent social updates and asked them to pick the cream of the crop as well as sort the rest into groups.", "Leibrock gave focus group subjects a stack of cards reflecting their recent social updates and asked them to pick the cream of the crop as well as sort the rest into groups."]
engadget.comResults: users tend to gravitate toward specific categories such as close friends, photos and direct interests, rather than piling everything together.
engadget.com
Huge profile picture on left, makes your friend's face, who shared, more obvious
Facebook retains the same old look for profiles & pages
Say hello to the "mobile inspired" new Facebook news feed
You can hop between different versions of the News Feed, too: "all friends," photos, video, music.
Image via buzzfed.com
Lots of parts of your news feed are getting lumped together more aggressively:
Image via buzzfed.com
It's a lot cleaner than the current design — everything else has been pushed to a sidebar:
Image via buzzfed.com
"It is designed for the way we are sharing today and the trends we see going forward," Zuckerberg said. "I don't foresee Facebook offering its own content."
thestar.com.my
The news feed would become more visual and more imerssive. The redesigned news feed is a front page for news that also lets you drill down on any different topic you want.
policymic.com
Facebook has overhauled its news feed for hundreds of millions of users, devoting more space to music, games and advertising in a bid to boost revenues.
guardian.co.uk
Take photo albums—they'll be bigger, now, with more thumbnails giving you an easier at-a-glance sense of what your friends actually did, and where.
gizmodo.com
Facebook filed a patent for "Paid Profile Personalization" back in 2011 that would get rid of advertisements on profile pages,
businessinsider.com
The News Feed will also highlight events and news from Pages. Zhuo is showing off a feature that shows the most shared articles of NPR.
Look out for Facebook's new content-specific changes!
The new main page will filter content by type to pull out photos, music, with larger images overall and larger images for advertisements.
engadget.comAlongside Graph Search, the rumored changes would amount to Facebook giving users finer-grained control over what content they will see.
theverge.com
These include a Photos feed of Facebook and Instagram photos, as well as a revamped Music feed of what friends are listening to, concerts, and new albums.
techcrunch.com
The new look will include broken-out feeds for different types of content like photos or music along with a cleaner design that features larger images — and probably larger ads.
theverge.com
A Photos Feed and Music Feed will apparently be most prominent, with photos showing images both from Facebook itself and Instagram — possibly with a "full-screen" option.
theverge.com
Facebook to showcase new look for news feed on March 7
Facebook Inc will unveil a new look for its popular 'newsfeed' next week, the latest move by the Web company to revamp key elements of its 1 billion member social network.
in.comThe site's CEO Mark Zuckerberg had earlier said that the addition of advertising had barely affected user engagement, and the numbers turned out better than they expected.
dnaindia.comFacebook also has continuously revised its News Feed algorithm to highlight posts it considers most relevant to a specific person.
What to expect from Facebook's shiny new feed
The new design shows that the "About" section has been pushed to the left-hand side of the page and Status updates, and other shared posts has been moved to the right-hand side of the page.
in.comFacebook is holding a mysterious event next week to introduce "a new look" for its tired News Feed, and, yes, the speculation has begun. Here's what a revamp might look like.
theatlanticwire.comThe News Feed redesign is likely to remove some of the micro-managing necessary to maintain a relevant social stream.
readwrite.com
A quick look at Facebook's previous changes
FB's Graph Search, the whole new search engine for Facebook, is built to help Facebook users find friends with common interests and places that friends like.
says2.com
Just lately it is said that Facebook might consider charging users a huge sum of USD100 in order for them to message strangers, aka people who are not your 'friends' on Facebook.
says2.com