Feature creep is a very real problem in todays apps, and to combat this Facebook has decided to get back to basics with the new, simpler Messenger.
The new Messenger was teased at their F8 developer conference earlier this year, in response to recent studios which show more than 70% of people see simplicity as their top priority in a messaging app.
The new Messenger interface has been pared back from nine to a mere three tabs, Chats, People and Discover. The Chats app puts your conversations front and centre, letting you see your messages from friends and groups, or access the camera easily in one place. The People tab lets you easily find new friends and watch their stories and see if they’re online and finally the Discover tab is where you can find the more commercial side of Messenger including finding brands, games and more.
The new Messenger also includes more personalisation options including a new option for chat customisation called Colour Gradients. Using Colour Gradients you can customise the individual chat bubbles with multiple colours so when you scroll up and down your conversation you can see the colours change from say red to blue – and if you get bored of the choice you can change it at any time.
With their interface hauled into line, Facebook is also working on new features like a Dark Mode, which they describe as ‘a re-skinned interface that cuts down on the glare from your phone’.
Facebook says you’ll be seeing the new Messenger soon, but they’re rolling it out in phases over the coming weeks.
Long time Messenger Lite user here and highly recommend it. Does messaging and nothing more, strips out all the bloat.
Let’s hope they make it quicker as well. Even on my Note 8 I can wait 30 seconds for it show all my friends and be able to select one to start chatting when launching the app
That sounds rough; it’s fine to run on my two year old Moto Z Play :/
I use messenger for SMS as well, sometimes it is quick, other times it is slow. It is my main communication app, performance increases would be good. Probably the SMS parts are very poorly written, functionality for SMS has not changed, you cannot even send a Vcard of a contact on your phone. The price you pay for only using a single app..