Facebook Messenger has now been updated with usernames, links and a new code scanning system that uses unique dash-dot identifier for easy connectivity. Android and iOS users can use these options by direct navigation or scanning profile pictures.
Facebook Messenger, currently boasting over nine billion users according to the company's stats, added up new features which will help people discover "people you may know," with greater ease. Now users can add friends to the chat using usernames and a new "scan code feature that acts as a link, AndroidPolice reported.
The updated Facebook Messenger features are located in the settings tab, where everybody can set their username that go something like "m.me/[yourusername]." This link is useful for web navigation, but the social network has also found a solution for adding people directly.
To add people in real life, one can access Scan Code button in the Messenger app and press it while focusing smartphone camera on the profile picture of their friends. The circular dashes and dots surrounding the profile picture act as a unique signature for each Facebook account holder.
This new code system is very similar to SnapCodes, but with trademark sign of Facebook messenger embedded inside it. Additionally, Facebook is giving Messenger adding links for the users, which other users can visit to begin a chatting session.
Facebook's new strategy aims at increasing the number of the Messenger app users. The new features are coming out slowly, links have already been deployed and the username are also at work while Messenger Codes are yet to surface. According to the app's leader David Marcus, "it shouldn't be too long," The Verge quoted him as saying.
The website also learned that the Facebook Messenger usernames are in fact the same which already exists on web addresses of users' profile pages, if they have defined them. The app is evolving and the new development will expectedly boost app users to achieve 1 billion.
The following YouTube video by Tech Insider instructs some Facebook Messenger tips and tricks for power users. For example ordering an Uber, hiding message previews, sharing current location, muting notifications for conversations, editing a photo before sending it and more.