Facebook Messenger Gets a Big Makeover

Change is difficult, so caryatid yourself, Facebook Messenger users: an app overhaul is on the way.

Introduced Tuesday, Messenger iv, which is rolling out now and slated to attain all users over the coming weeks, is all about simplicity. To that stop, Facebook has reduced the number of tabs within the app from nine to just three: Chats, People, and Discover.

Chats will house all your one-on-i and group conversations, People is where you can bank check out friends' stories and encounter who's agile, and Discover is for connecting with businesses and playing Instant Games.

Facebook Messenger 4

Facebook Messenger Head Davis Marcus tipped this redesign in January, noting that the app had "become as well cluttered."

Don't worry about losing your favorite Messenger features, though: Facebook said they're all staying put.

"Whether you want to poll your friends on which film to see, split the bill for concluding night's dinner, share your live location to find friends at a music festival, claiming them to your favorite games, or catch upward in a grouping video chat, we aren't changing anything about what y'all've e'er loved about Messenger," Messenger VP Stan Chudnovsky wrote in a weblog mail.

Facebook Messenger 4

Meanwhile, i new characteristic in Messenger 4 lets you spice up your conversation bubbling with custom color gradients, which you can meet below.

"You can run into the colors change from ruby-red to blue, for case, as you scroll up and down a conversation," Chudnovsky explained.

In the futurity, Facebook plans to innovate a Dark Mode for those who prefer a blackness groundwork, and a "re-skinned interface that cuts down on the glare from your phone."

Here'southward hoping people like the new version of Messenger better than Shapchat's widely panned redesign earlier this twelvemonth. Snapchat was forced to roll back elements of the overhaul after users revolted.

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag'south expert on fitness and smart dwelling products. Instruction yoga for nearly 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fitness trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more. Angela also tests smart dwelling house devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to name a few.