Facebook today announced its Messenger mobile application is now being used by more than 900 million people globally every month, up from 800 million active monthly users announced in January.
Celebrating the milestone, the social network firm unveiled Snapchat-like scannable profile codes.
In addition, it announced some interesting new ways for people to find businesses and friends to start a conversation, including vanity profile URLs on Messenger. More than a billion messages are now being sent every month between people on Messenger and businesses, wrote David Marcus, Facebook’s Vice President of Messaging.
“We’re starting to roll out Messenger Codes, Usernames and Links (with the amazing m.me/[yourusername] URL) available to people and businesses, making it easier than ever to connect,” said Marcus.
Messenger Codes, Usernames and Links
Called Messenger Codes, these are basically a pattern of dots, circles and dashes around your profile photo that can be scanned. The purpose of Messenger Codes is to make it easy for users to scan the code with phone in order start chatting with the business or another user.
If Snapchat is an indication, these profile codes should prove popular with users.
Messenger Codes are “rolling out gradually”.
Facebook Usernames, much like custom user names on Facebook, allow you to grab a vanity URL for your profile that you can share on social media and elsewhere to make it simple for other people to get in touch with your via Messenger.
For instance, if you click my Messenger URL m.me/dujkan, the mobile Messenger app will load on your smartphone or tablet (on desktop, you’re taken to the Messenger web app) so you can start sending me messages right away.
Usernames on Messenger are the same as those you use on Facebook itself.
These short links will show up on businesses’ Facebook pages, too.
And if you own a business and use Messenger to communicate with your customers, you can now adjust Messenger’s greetings with a custom message that will appear in your thread.
How do you like these new Messenger features and which one is your favorite?
Source: Facebook