Facebook Messenger Rolling Out Easier to Navigate Home Screen

BY Evan Selleck

Published 18 May 2017

At the beginning of May, Facebook rolled out its Instant Games feature for Messenger globally, letting users play games with one another whenever they wanted.

Now Messenger is primed to get a more subtle change, but this one is meant to help users save time when trying to talk to people (or play games with them). As reported by Engadget, Facebook is rolling out a new home screen for Messenger, in which navigation should be a bit quicker and easier. The messaging app is now split into three distinct tabs, the first of which allows them to see all of their conversations and jump into any one with just a tap.

The second tab is meant to put a more obvious page on which Facebook Messenger users are active from your friend’s list, so you can see who else might be available to chat when you are. And, lastly, the final tab should make it easier to jump into a group chat you’re in.

Messenger is keeping the bottom bar around, but there are a few changes to it, too. It will still show Home and Calls on the left of the Camera button, but on the right there will now be People and Games. (In the current version, the options on the right are Groups and People, with the Games section being a weird element in the middle of the Home page.)

Red dots will show up on a specific tab if someone has tried to reach out to you, so users will be able to see at a glance if someone is trying to communicate with them.

While this might be a welcomed change for Messenger users, it’s not all good news today for Facebook. It was reported earlier that the company has been fined $122 million by the EU for misleading information pertaining to the acquisition of WhatsApp.

[via Engadget]