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Facebook adds codes and usernames to its Messenger app

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) recently added new features to its Messenger app, which included usernames, links and codes to make it easier to its users to connect with each other, even if they are not friends in the social media giant.

The new features were described by Facebook as an improvement in how people find each other. Now they can start conversations almost immediately with the use of the launched set of tools that were built for the “modern world”.

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) will announce support for chatbots and live chat APIs for Messenger during the Facebook Developer Conference on April 12-13. Photo credit: CNBC

“Starting today we are taking another step forward in delivering a new solution to the more than 900 million people who use Messenger every month,” the company stated in a post. “Phone numbers are not necessary, and you do not have to be friends on Facebook.”

With Messenger codes users can scan other users from their own phone, whether they are standing side-by-side or the code is in a computer screen. It is the same method that uses SnapChat with the code in the ghost-like logo.

The Messenger links and usernames are described as user’s “very own personalized links” that are shareable through any social media. The link just have to be copied and shared online. Whoever clicks on it will be able to connect with the link’s owner.

Messenger as Facebook’s latest focus

With 900 million people who use the messaging app every month, it is not a surprise that the company has been putting some major attention on it in the past months. According to Techcrunch, the social media giant will be announcing chatbots and live chat APIs at Facebook’s F8 conference next week.

The Menlo-Park-based company will also provide business, who do not have the resources or technical skills to build chatbots, the API tools to built the bots and Live Chat web plug-ins for them.

In the conference the Messenger app will be the main show for the second year in a row. Its improvement last year was the opening of the app to outside developers, including makers of photo-and-video-editing apps and business such as Everlane and Zulily, which used the opening to field customers questions and provide shipping updates, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Source: Messenger

Categories: Technology
Daniel Contreras:
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