Since Messenger became an app of its own, Facebook has been quietly adding functionality to make it stand out. The app has a ton of neat hidden features, from GIFs to addicting games and ever-innovative ways to write and present text.

1. Use Messenger on the computer

If you want to message your friends on your computer without the distraction of your News Feed,  try pulling up Messenger directly onto your computer. Just go to Messenger.com and sign in with your Facebook account. You can also access a conversation directly by going to Messenger.com/ and adding your friend’s Facebook username at the end.

The desktop Messenger looks just like the Messenger page that can be accessed from Facebook, but it lacks the Facebook search bar at the top of the screen.

2. Send and request money

Facebook has been allowing users to send and receive money for the past few years. Much like Venmo, Messenger lets you connect your credit card to the app, and send money to your friends, and request money from them as well.

To use it, link your debit card by going to Profile > Payments > Add New Debit Card. To send and request, enter a chat with the friend hit the plus sign on the bottom left corner, select Payments, and enter the necessary amount.

3. Add friends instantly with your profile code

If you ever meet someone and like them so much that you want to friend them instantly, you can have them scan your unique profile code.

To pull it up, tap your profile’s icon in the top left corner of the app, then tap the large profile picture in the center of your screen. Press My Code to display your own code, and Scan Code to scan someone else’s.

4. Play games

Facebook has a lineup of really addicting games from user favorites Words with Friends and 2048 to classics like Pacman and Snake — all of which can be played right in Messenger.

To challenge a friend or group of friends, start a conversation, press the plus sign, and select Games. If you’re a loner, or you want to get some practice, start a conversation with yourself to play any game alone.

5. Chat with bots

If you’ve had enough of human interaction, never fear: Messenger’s army of bots will keep you company. They’ll send you news, help you place orders, play games, and more.

Tap Discover in the bottom right corner, and start a conversation with the bot that strikes your fancy.

6. Secret Conversations

You can start encrypted conversations in Facebook messenger that nobody outside of them can see — not even the government or Facebook itself. They use end-to-end encryptionsimilar to that of Facebook’s Whatsapp.

Start a conversation, tap Secret in the top right corner, and select the friend you want to message. To make your messages disappear after a certain period of time, tap the clock icon to the left of the text box.

7. Customize your conversations

Facebook has a number of ways to make your conversations with your friends your own. Open a group chat and tap its name to open customization options.

You can change your group’s color, give your friends nicknames, or set a group emoji (to replace the “Thumbs Up” icon).

8. Share news, recipes, restaurants, flights, and more

With Messenger’s lineup of integrated third-party apps, you can send your friends some pretty cool stuff in just one click.

If you’re chatting about travel plans, you can search for and share hotel and flight options with the Kayak extension. You can share recipes from the Food Network, restaurants from OpenTable, songs from Spotify and Apple Music, and news articles from the Wall Street Journal.

To access these extensions, open a conversation and tap the plus sign in the bottom left corner.

9. Scribble Chat

Scribble Chat turns your messages into fun 3D animations. There are currently 42 animation options, and they’re all adorable.

Open a conversation and tap the plus sign in the bottom left corner, then swipe left to select ScribbleChat.

10. Send an audio recording

An audio recording is an easy way to share a song you’re listening to, or send a fun birthday greeting.

To start a recording, open a conversation and press and hold the microphone button to the left of the text box. Drag up to cancel the recording, and let go of the icon to end and send.

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Source: Mashable

The post 10 things you didn’t know you could do with Facebook Messenger appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The new feature will be available on both Android and iPhone soon, and it’s accessed the same way you’d normally send your location. But now you’ll have the option not just to put a pin on the map where you are, but to let them track you continuously for a duration of your choosing. (A version of this feature was tested earlier this year.)

Fifteen minutes, an hour and 8 hours seem to be the three lengths of time you can choose from, though of course, you can also turn off location sharing manually if you reach your destination or wish to conceal your movements.

Snapchat and Foursquare have their own versions of live location sharing as well, but the everyday messaging space seems like the best fit for me.

One use for this that seems actually quite helpful is making sure someone gets home all right. There are a few safety apps out there already, but this is a simpler way to keep track of someone if you can’t walk or drive them home yourself. Plus, it’s a widely used cross-platform app that isn’t Messenger. Unfortunately, WhatsApp is still the ugliest of all the chat apps, but what can you do?

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Source: TechCrunch

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Available right from your message threads, they load in seconds since they’re built on the HTML5 mobile web standard, rather than having to be downloaded like clunky native apps.

Facebook hopes some friendly competition will get you to spend even more time in Messenger. You compete asynchronously via high scores instead of directly at the same time, so it’s convenient to try your luck any time. And eventually, Instant Games could earn Facebook ad dollars from developers promoting their games, or a cut of payments, though there are no in-game purchases allowed yet.

Instant Games launches today in 30 countries including the U.S., with 17 games from classic developers like Bandai Namco, Konami, and Taito as well as newer studios like Zynga and King. Instant Games are available on newer iOS and Android devices, and can be found by hitting the game controller icon in your Facebook Messenger threads next to the photos and stickers buttons. You can also play across platforms from Facebook on desktop thanks to a little overlaid phone screen.

Which games should you try first? Check out our review list, “The best Facebook Messenger games to play right now”

Hands-On: Dicey Controls, But Frictionless And Addicting
I played all 17 of the games, and was impressed by how they quickly load in three to ten seconds considering the high quality graphics and gameplay, as well as how Messenger automatically shares high scores and leaderboards so its easy to challenge people. Since most of the games are simple to pick up and take around 30 seconds to play a full round, anyone can slot them into their day.

The most frustrating part is the spotty controls that can quickly get you killed in games like Pac-Man and Arkanoid. But an even bigger concern might be just how successful Messenger Instant Games could be. They’re so frictionless and it’s so fun to one-up friends for high scores that I already felt pangs of addiction as I shirked work to play.

Facebook’s head of Messenger David Marcus tells me “Social gaming was big on desktop. [But on mobile] Everything has gotten social slapped on as an after-thought.” Facebook thinks games built or rebuilt for fast, asynchronous competition could unlock a new era of friendly play.

Facebook Gets Back To Gaming Via HTML5
Facebook dominated social gaming around 2008 after its desktop app platform proved more popular for playing around than for utilities. It earned a peak of a quarter-billion dollars per quarter on its 30% tax on in-game purchases, and their addictive and viral nature helped Facebook grow its user count and engagement. Today, 15% of time on Facebook.com is still spent playing games, though payments revenue has declined to $196 million in the latest quarter.

As users shifted to mobile, Facebook found itself shut out of gaming. Only iOS and Android could run native app stores, so they were who earned the taxes on in-game payments. Facebook desperately tried to build an HTML5 game platform called Project Spartan in 2011, but it flopped because the mobile web standard wasn’t powerful enough to build games that could compete with flashy, downloadable native apps.

Over time, though, developers have figured out how to squeeze better graphics and responsive gameplay out of HTML5. You won’t be playing 3D epics like Infinity Blade on Messenger, but 80s arcade classics, simple puzzlers, and retro games like Flappy Bird would work just fine.

Facebook actually tested the potential for Messenger games by building its own. Its basketball shoot-out game was played 1.2 billion times, much more than the company expected. It knew people would play if Messenger gave them games. And chat apps like Line and KakaoTalk had already pioneered the idea of chat game platform.

Earlier this month, The Information reported Facebook was building an Instant Games platform, and we advanced the story with news about how the games would work and that the Candy Crush-maker King was building for the platform.

Though HTML5 games built inside Messenger platforms might not be as graphically powerful, they’re almost as engaging. A study by gaming network Gamee found that, on average, users played chat games 34 times per day for a total of 21 minutes over 2 sessions per day, while they played native app games 43 times for 33 minutes over 2.5 sessions per day.

Combine that level of chat game engagement with the lack of friction to get started, and there’s a big audience waiting for Messenger’s Instant Games.

It’s all part of Facebook’s two-pronged new approach to gaming. On mobile, there’s Messenger Instant Games. And on desktop, the new Facebook Gameroom downloadable desktop client is a cheap, casual, social alternative to the expensive, hardcore desktop game platform Steam.

Instant Gaming
The biggest draw of Instant Games is how quick you can start playing. You tap the game controller icon in one of your message threads, choose a game from the list, it loads in seconds, you play a short round, and your high score gets automatically posted to the private or group chat thread.

You can even share a stylized high score screenshot that you can Doodle on top of like Snapchat to trash talk your opponents. And if you share a game to the News Feed, friends can jump right into the action from Facebook’s app or website.

Facebook’s Next Developer Ecosystem

To keep developers building for it, Facebook will need to eventually offer them ways to make money. Right now, games don’t feature ads and don’t allow in-game payments. That means developers might lose money if they build for and send traffic to Instant Games instead of their own native apps where they can charge or show ads at their own discretion.

However, Marcus tells me “Over time we’ll find ways for game developers to monetize. That’s our commitment to them in the new year.” For now, though, there’s plenty of virality and traction to grab since playing a game in a thread automatically challenges your chat mates, and you can share games you enjoy as News Feed posts. Developers might strive to build an audience now and monetize it later.

Compared to platforms like the iMessage game store, which is buried and features lackluster games, Facebook Messenger’s offering is compelling. And unlike KakaoTalk, where you have to download games as separate native apps and just use the chat platform for login and competing, Messenger’s Instant Games feel like a natural part of the communication experience. [Update: Telegram offers HTML5 games, but the experience is only available inside chatbots and takes some work to dig out.

Facebook will have to avoid the spam apocalypse that soured many users on its old desktop social games.

Developers like Zynga exploited viral communication channels to get players to pester friends for help.

Facebook product manager Andrea Vaccari tells me Facebook has learned from that mistake. “Right now all in-game communication is controlled by us”, he says.

If Facebook can use its 1 billion-user reach to lure top developers and put games just two clicks away, it might have found something to add to Messenger that’s almost as addicting as talking with friends.

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Source: Techcrunch

The post Facebook messenger launches instant games appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Black Stars were condemned by an early goal from Manchester United striker Robin Van Persie.

He had the easiest task of tucking home from close in the 5th minute thanks to a defensive mistake.

Akenteng says the game was a useful exercise and the Black Stars game a good account of themselves.

“I don’t think the score line should be taken too serious because it’s a game in which two nations are putting final touches to their team,” he told GHANASoccernet.

“The stars have shown their strength in depth and I think some guys have given Kwesi (Appiah) a bit of headache in relation to his set up in the next game.

“All in all, I feel it was a good exercise.”

Grusah disagrees

King Faisal president Alhaji Karim Grusah says Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah will have to work on his strike force if his team is to excel at this year’s 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Robin Van Persie continued his fine form for his country by scoring the winner as the Netherlands beat Ghana 1-0 in Rotterdam on Saturday night.

Louis Van Gaal’s team dominated proceedings from start to finish with the Black Stars restricted to half chances throughout the game.

Grusah says rapid improvement is needed at the strike force if impact is to be made at the world cup.

“I think the team did well not many incidence to talk about. From a sincere point of view I don’t think we tested their goalkeeper,” Grusah told GHANASoccernet.

“I feel we could have done more and that is where the coach must start working on.

“Goals decide games and to play a whole game without a clear cut chances is not so encouraging.”

Ghana’s final test match is against South Korea on 9 June in Florida.

Source: Ghanasoccernet

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