Facebook: About 1.2 billion users actively use Messenger to stay in touch

Image Credit: Facebook

Over 1.2 billion people use Facebook Messenger every month globally to stay in touch with the people and businesses that matter to them the most. In the last few months, Facebook has added group video calling, a powerful and fast camera – preloaded with stickers, masks, frames, effects and the ability to share photos and videos to your Day, making it easy and fun to share what’s happening in your life, moment by moment.

“I keep on hearing powerful stories about how our product is becoming a more important part of your daily lives. So from all of us here at Messenger, a heartfelt thank you to all of you for giving us a chance to build something good and more meaningful for you,” said David Marcus, Vice President, Messaging Products, Facebook, in a post on Wednesday.

The company has also launched Mentions and Reactions to make group conversations on Messenger fun and engaging. Last month, Facebook Messenger added a new feature Live Location that lets you share – for an hour within a private direct or group message thread – your real-time location on a map.

Publish date: April 14, 2017 11:07 am| Modified date: April 14, 2017 11:07 am

Facebook Messenger introduces group payments: Are payments in messaging apps the next big thing?

Representative image: AP

After introducing peer-to-peer in its Messenger app, Facebook today introduced group payments in Messenger. The service basically lets you send or receive payments from group members conveniently using the Messenger app, which is a great idea considering that most conversations and decisions happen in a messaging app.

For a service that started back in 2015, it hasn’t picked up even though Facebook is a worldwide service. However, with more apps jumping on to the mobile payments bandwagon, is this the future for messaging apps? WeChat’s WeChat Pay success story could have the answer.

Facebook Messenger’s payment service has plenty of connections that go way back. In March 2015, Facebook introduced its peer-to-peer payment service for the US market. Users could use debit cards from US banks and send money to friends using the popular messaging app.

In the same month at F8, a Facebook developers’ conference, Facebook also announced that it would start letting users interact with businesses on its social network. With Messenger now announced as a platform the possibilities were indeed limitless because users would also be able to open compatible third-party apps inside messenger.

Move to April 2016, and Facebook introduced its bot platform with an API to build chat bots that would interact with users.  And with group payments introduced today, it all adds up to what appears be the next big thing with messaging services — payments.

But two years later, Messenger may have many users, but its payments front has yet to pick up pace. And there are reasons for this. For starters, the service only works with debit cards issued by US banks. Users also have to live in the United States as the services are not available outside the US.

It’s all about how it’s done

While sending money via the messaging app is effective, it literally is way behind WeChat, its competitor from the Far East.

WeChat takes a different approach to the same. Its payment service is called WeChat Pay and you can not only send payments to friends and family, but even use the service to pay for daily items at retailers and even book a taxi.

The back end is run by Tencent (parent company) and supports a long list of both credit and debit cards in payments. More importantly, it even works with cards opened in the US and Canada (billing address needed).

As tested out by Tech in Asia, you can literally head into popular stores and buy everything from clothing to groceries. As reported by Reuters, Tencent charged its users 0.01 percent per transaction back in 2016. Tencent through its WeChat payments was expected to make twice as much as PayPal processed in a year.

Line Pay is another messaging app that took off in 2014. Similar to WeChat, the messaging app Line (that comes from Japan), allows for payments not just between users but even to other services. More importantly, Line Pay is available globally, unlike WeChat which is only available in China. Line also allows businesses to connect to customers using its Line@ app.

Everyone’s looking at payments

Truecaller, a popular crowd-sourced call filtering app, received a major update, one that also included a new Flash Messaging section and Truecaller Pay. The call filtering service that is now also a messaging service embraces Digital India and allows for cashless payments, allowing millions of users in the country to make a payment by either using their UPI ID or a mobile number registered with BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money).

The service however does not work via its messaging app, but, like WeChat, can be used to do more than just peer-to peer payments.

WhatsApp too is said to be working on a digital payment system that will once again use UPI. The messaging service is looking to hire an expert in Aadhaar, UPI and Bhim and is expected to launch a payments interfaced in 6 month’s time.

Owned by Facebook, WhatsApp’s reach will be far wider and will give a boost to digital transactions, provided it is implemented in the right manner. Hopefully it doesn’t repeat Facebook’s mistakes with Messenger.

Payments from mobile messaging apps are picking up pace. And with little to show in terms of features, they might as well turn into payment systems that could help boost their app usage.

Publish date: April 12, 2017 2:11 pm| Modified date: April 12, 2017 2:11 pm

MWC 2017: Here is how you can play the iconic Nokia Snake game on Facebook Messenger

By Rehan Hooda /  27 Feb 2017 , 12:04

Nokia has announced the launch of the iconic and legendary Nokia Snake game for Facebook Messenger users. The game is an iconic and instant reminder at being one of the very first mobile games in the era of dumb phones which predated the colour-display mobile phones. Even though the company has announced the launch of Snake game in colour with the reborn Nokia 3310, users can play the Nokia Snake game in all its mono colour glory in the Facebook Messenger app.

One thing to note is that the game is not available for everyone because of the limited availability of Facebook Games. Facebook Messenger Games are only available in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, Canada, United States, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Latvia, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, France, Singapore, Finland, Hong Kong, Russian Federation, Estonia, Taiwan, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Cyprus, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, and Italy at the time of writing. A wider rollout in other countries has not been announced but is expected to soon follow.

For the people who can play Facebook Games, go to the Facebook Messenger on your Android or iOS device and tap on the ‘Games’ button, you may have on ‘More’ button to get to the ‘Games’ tab but it will be on the list. After tapping on the ‘Games’ button, you will be greeted with a list of games available for you to play and you will find Nokia ‘Snake’ on the top of the list. The procedure is the same while using Facebook Messenger on your desktop.

If you still can’t wait to play the game, we have got you covered as you can access the ‘Snake’ game despite Facebook games not available for users in India. To do this, you need to ensure that Facebook Messenger App is updated. This procedure is tried and tested on Android smartphone devices.

After updating the Facebook Messenger app to the latest available version, clear the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’ for Facebook Messenger from the ‘Apps’ submenu from the Settings page of the smartphone. The option to clear the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’ will be available under the ‘Storage’ option in the ‘App info’ section of the app. After clearing the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’, you need to install any free VPN app for example ‘Opera VPN‘ and set the location as ‘United States’ or ‘Canada’ in the VPN.

Once the location is set as ‘United States’ in the VPN app, head to Facebook Messenger and login using your account details. Once you login, you can now access the ‘Games’ option and head to the ‘Games’ section to play ‘Snake’ as mentioned above.

Read our complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017

WhatsApp hires Facebook executive Matt Idema as its first COO

Image: AFP

By tech2 News Staff /  16 Feb 2017 , 15:51

WhatsApp has hired Matt Idema, a Facebook executive who was leading product marketing for all the business products made by Facebook worldwide. This hire is suspected to lead WhatsApp into a completely different and contrasting direction than the current scenario. Facebook acquired the company in 2014 for $22 billion. The interesting part of the acquisition is the fact that WhatsApp does not make any money for Facebook. The company also decided to eliminate the subscription fee that WhatsApp charged the users after one year of free usage.

There are hints that the company is thinking about a mechanism to make money out of the massive userbase that WhatsApp commands all over the world. The decision of hire Idema hints towards a push in direction of monetization as reported by Recode. Even though his role has not yet been chalked out inside WhatsApp and it may not be the same as that of product marketing while working with Facebook. But it may very well fit in if rumours are true about WhatsApp working on adding ‘Business profile’ to the platform which will make it easier for businesses to operate and reach consumers beyond emails, calls and SMS.

This surely is a different way from the revenue stream that can be secured from straight up subscription fees, paid app models or advertisements that other companies and developers opt for. But developing a business side of the app and charging money will be a great way which won’t affect normal users. Another important thing to note is the fact that the company won’t really channel all the third-party messages or spam to you but in fact aims at making the addition more useful.

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum had previously added, “Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organisations that you want to hear from. That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today — through text messages and phone calls — so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on WhatsApp, while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and spam.”

One important thing to note is that WhatsApp is heading in almost the same direction as that of Facebook Messenger with hints of impending ‘Bots’ and businesses and brands. The attempts at monetizing platforms are going in the same direction as that of adding Snapchat like features in all its platforms ranging from Instagram to Facebook Messenger and now WhatsApp.

Facebook launches group video chat on Facebook Messenger

By tech2 News Staff /  20 Dec 2016 , 10:38

Facebook has announced the launch of group video chat to Facebook Messenger. The company claims that this is the most requested feature by the users for the chat platform. The feature is set to roll out worldwide across Android, iOS and desktop starting today.

Facebook says that about 245 million users make video calls per month, ensuring that there is a new way for people to feel closer to each other. The company also announced the launch of 3D masks to be used during conversations on video calls. The feature is currently exclusive to iOS users but the Android version will follow soon.

Image Credit: Facebook

One thing to note is that the users can see six people at any given time in the video chat and the maximum number of people in a group video chat can go up to 50. However, the participants of the video call will only see the dominant speaker. To start a group video call, you need to go to a group conversation and tap on the video icon on the upper right corner of the screen to launch.

After initiating the video call people can join in when they are ready. However, as detailed in this Facebook blog post, you can directly call the whole group or a few people directly. This feature rollout comes right after the introduction of camera update for Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger apes another feature from Snapchat in new update: Camera

By tech2 News Staff /  16 Dec 2016 , 12:04

Facebook’s Messenger team today announced a new feature and it involves the launch of a new camera. The new camera that’s now available inside the Messenger app lets you add special effects that should add some colour to your holiday conversations.

The roll out as always is gradual, and will be arriving on smartphones globally over the coming days. The update is a move by Facebook to turn Messenger into more of visual experience and this adds to the 2.5 billion emojis, photos, stickers and videos that are sent across every day on Messenger.

Another reason for Facebook to switch to a new camera, is to replace the keyboard in an effort to make  sharing photos and videos faster, simpler and obviously more fun and interactive.

The new camera packs in quicker access to capture and share your moments as they happen. It can be activated with a single tap on the shutter button, post which a short tap clicks a photo and a long tap (press) starts recording a video.

And with every new camera this year, comes new art and special effects. This time we also have 3D masks and special effects that let you add your artistic touches to the photos and help your express more.

There’s even a palette icon that’s placed next to the shutter that will let you take you to a blank canvas where you can add art and stickers to your text.

Indeed these are similar to what Snapchat already has on offer. Facebook has been copy pasting features from the messaging service for some time now. While the features often get ripped off from one platform to the another, it is the user who gains the maximum flexibility at the end of the day.

Facebook’s ‘Secret Conversations’ brings end-to-end encryption to its one billion Messenger users

By tech2 News Staff /  05 Oct 2016 , 13:43

Facebook has completed the roll out of its ‘Secret Conversations’ feature to each and every one of its Messenger users. The feature was rolled out to beta users in July and started rolling out to regular users in September.

Facebook Messenger’s Secret Conversations feature enables end-to-end encryption for conversations between two devices. Setting this implementation of encryption apart from other methods used by the likes of WhatsApp and Allo is the fact that this encryption is opt-in and limited to two participating devices.

This means that users will need to explicitly enable Secret Conversations for every, well, secret conversation that you want to have. Encryption keys are stored on your device and the conversation is limited to the participating devices. In fact, any Secret Conversation will be unique to the participating devices. You can’t access it via a different device or via your browser.

A secret conversation will follow a black colour theme so as not to confuse it with a regular conversation.

The protocol used is the same one that’s used by Snowden’s favourite messaging app, Signal. It’s been developed by Open Whisper systems to be extremely secure, and it is. The system ensures absolute privacy between two devices and integrates a number of checks to ensure that conversations are secure.

The downside to Secret Conversations is that you can’t send gifs or video and are limited to stickers and images. You also can’t use this system for group conversations.

Opting in for encryption might seem like an odd move from a company that made end-to-end encryption the default mode of operation on its other messaging app, WhatsApp. However, TheNextWeb suggests that this move by Facebook is an attempt to bypass legal hassles. WhatsApp has gotten into trouble with various governments, including the Indian government, over this policy.

Facebook rolls out Messenger Lite for emerging markets

  03 Oct 2016 , 11:40

Facebook Inc launched a stripped down version of its popular Messenger app for emerging markets on Monday as it seeks to expand its international footprint.

Messenger Lite, which uses less data and is designed to work in areas with slower internet connections, will roll out in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela. Facebook said it will expand to other countries in the coming months.

Facebook has largely saturated Western markets, including North America and Europe, and has set its sights on developing countries, in part by