Facebook Messenger has started launching new features to make its platform easier to use. Meta-owned social networking app plans to offer new productivity and chat reminder features, a built-in payment function and keyboard shortcuts for smartphone users. People using Messenger will be able to address everyone in their group chat by typing “@everyone”. The app already allows users to address a specific person in the chat, but the Messenger team said that the feature is being introduced so that users can issue “reminders” throughout the conversation to their friends. According to a blog post by the Messenger team, the new @everyone feature can be used for “group reminders, improvised assemblies, or when you need to build brain confidence to find an answer to a time-sensitive question.” The app also allows people in different time zones to mute each other’s message alerts using the / keyboard shortcut. The feature is also available on Meta-owned Instagram as @silent. The @everyone and / silent shortcuts are available to all Messenger users on iOS and Android devices. Users in the US will be able to send and receive payments in their one-on-one chats in Messenger in the coming weeks. The shortcut / pay will be presented to Android and iOS Facebook Messenger users in the USA. The keyboard shortcuts / gif, / shrug and / tableflip will be introduced to iOS Messenger users in the future. The gif shortcut means that users can find their selected gifs more conveniently, while the / shrug and / tableflip functions are text-based emoticons, for when “a gif can not be compared to the emotions conveyed by old text-based school turn the table (╯ ° □ °） ╯︵ ┻━┻ and shrug “¯ \ _ (ツ) _ / ¯ emoticons.” The company addressed its users, describing the traffic as “a new command system that will help you increase the effectiveness of your messages and add a little extra fun to your experience.” “Messenger’s new shortcuts will get you there with the shortest number of keys.” The Messenger team also posted a blog post that more shortcuts will be revealed later this year. Last August, Facebook Messenger introduced fully encrypted voice and video calling to its users. 10 things you need to know directly in your inbox every day. Sign up for the Daily Brief, the Silicon Republic summary of major science technology news.
