Just weeks after announcing plans to eliminate messaging capabilities from its main app, Facebook is now beefing up its standalone Messenger app with some new features and improvements.
Facebook Messenger version 5.0, released this week for iOS and Android, promises to help you more easily bring your messages to life with photos, videos, and the social network's emoji-like stickers. For instance, if you see something you simply must share, you can now snap a photo of it within the app and send it in one tap, without leaving the conversation. You can also now attach video from your phone's camera roll, and play any videos you receive right in the app.
"Everything's front and center, so it's easier to send photos, voice messages and more," Facebook said in its release notes for version 5.0.
Just watch out what attach to your messages. As Engadget notes, anything you choose will be sent immediately since there's no option to preview it and change your mind. This goes for photos, voice messages, and stickers.
Speaking of stickers, there's some changes there as well. When someone sends you a cool sticker, you can now press and hold down on it to snag the pack for yourself. Meanwhile, the social network also made some improvements to search, letting you enter the names of people and groups to find them more quickly.
The update comes after Facebook last week announced that it has finally crossed the one billion mark for monthly active mobile users. Separately, there are more than 200 million monthly active users of Facebook's Messenger app.
The newly updated Messenger app can be found in the App Store and Google Play.