Facebook shows off dark mode for Messenger & other upcoming design changes

Facebook at yesterday’s F8 developers conference in California made good on the promise that it’d declutter the Messenger app by implementing design changes and a darker appearance.

David Marcus, Vice President of Messaging products, recently admitted to Messenger becoming “too cluttered”. The Next Web shared screenshots of Messenger’s upcoming dark theme. The app also makes rich use of bold headings similar to Apple’s iOS 11 styling.

Simplifying the experience, they’ve relocated the VoIP call, video call and camera buttons to the top-right corner. As a result, there are now fewer buttons at the bottom of the screen next to the text field. At the very bottom are five tabs: Home, People, Camera, Games and Discover.

The company said the new app would be faster too.

Unfortunately, Facebook continues shoving its Snapchat clone called Messenger Day down our throats, whether we like it or not: the option to add media to your Messenger Day Story still occupies the top of the screen where you’ll see other people’s stories, too, like on Facebook.

The social network will be “taking this moment to completely redesign Messenger” in order to focus on the simple and fast experience that users want from chat apps, CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised during yesterday’s developer conference.

The new design should go live “very soon,” the company said.