Facebook announces Desktop app, more features for Messenger

Facebook’s annual developer conference called F8 2019 brings new updates and innovations to the company’s whole social media platform. This year, Mark Zuckerberg started the event by stating that they will now lean towards a privacy-focused system in Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook itself.

Asha Sharma, Director of Messenger Consumer Product, stated that the new products and features for Messenger will help create closer ties with consumers, businesses, and developers. Here are the following feats announced:

• Re-building the architecture of Messenger to make the download size smaller and faster. Asha stated that the new app will take less than 30MB instead of over a hundred. It will roll out later this year
• Users can discover and watch videos from Facebook with friends or family in real time. They will be able to share a video from the Facebook app on Messenger.
• A Messenger Desktop App will be rolled out later this year that you can download on both Windows and MacOS. It will most likely have the same features as the mobile app with some changes in the interface.
• There will be a dedicated space or tab in the Messenger app where you can discover stories and messages with your closest friends and family members. You can also share snippets from your “My Day” and choose who can see what you post.
• Messenger will have an “add lead generation templates” to Ads Manager where the business can create an ad that leads people into answering a simple Q&A to learn more about them.

Majority of these features will roll out this year with no specific date yet. Watch the full Day 1 keynote here:

https://www.facebook.com/FacebookforDevelopers/videos/422572928569998/