These days the main metric for popularity is active users, and with 900 million, Facebook messenger can be considered popular. But not popular enough for Facebook, with the company looking to make it easier to keep in contact or be contacted, rolling out Usernames, Links & Messenger Codes.
There’s a real business focus with this update, with Facebook really emphasising how the new updates can be used for business.
The new features will arrive in an update for their mobile apps from today – as usual there will be a lag, but not too great. Firstly the update will allow you to set your own username among other things, similar to your existing vanity URL, now the Messenger name will show up with an @ in front of it.
Now if you have a common name or business name, you can just tell your customers, friends or contacts to look up your ‘BunnyM4n’ username and they can find you.
The other new way to get in contact is with Links, which you can share to your contacts. The link then opens up your contact in Messenger and you’re good to go.
Lastly, Messenger Codes. If you’ve used SnapChat, you’ll be familiar with the Ghostface Chillah with a QR code that people can scan to follow you. Messenger Codes is basically this. You can use the codes for your business to make it easy for people to contact you, or just share them with friends and colleagues.
If you’re interested in checking out the update, you should be seeing an update notification in Google Play shortly.
