Ever since it's release, Messenger went from being a lightweight chat application to a bloated abomination chock-full of features that nobody wanted. As a result, the app was a massive data and battery hog, prompting users to install its less-bloated variant Messenger Lite. Facebook has since updated Messenger several times, often using the same buzzwords such as "made for you" and "simplicity", but the app remains as bloated as ever. Today, Facebook is rolling out yet another iteration of Messenger. Dubbed Messenger 4, the app aims to reduce the clutter, making it easier for people to navigate.
Currently, the Messenger app has about nine tabs which makes it a pain to navigate. With Messenger 4, the number of tabs is coming down to three. The three tabs are going to be the main Chats tab, where all the chats are visible. The next tab is the People tab where you can find friends, catch up on people’s Stories, and see everyone who is active right now. Then you have the Discover tab, where you can connect with businesses to get the latest deals, play Instant Games, book your next vacation, follow the news and more.
Facebook is also adding chat bubble colour gradients as a way of customising the look and vibe of your conversations. Messenger 4 can personalise your conversations with a small but delightful update to chat customisations called colour gradients. With this feature, you can now use multiple colours to customise your chat bubbles in conversations. You can see the colours change from red to blue, for example, as you scroll up and down a conversation. Colour gradients can be changed any time to reflect your mood or topic of conversation. The company is also planning to release a Dark Mode for Messenger, which will be added over the course of a future update. The update is expected to roll out in the coming weeks to all platforms. Till the changes roll out, we'd recommend that you use the Lite variant of the app as it is far easier on the battery.
News Source: Facebook
About the author: Anil has been a lifelong tech enthusiast and has worked a variety of jobs before joining the Wccftech team in 2018. His primary responsibilities include reporting on all things in the Android and mobile gaming sphere. He is also passionate about PC hardware, obscure music and internet culture. He also has a thing for addressing himself in third person as an exercise in self-awareness.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
