Rest of the Day: Facebook Messenger Has a New Home Screen and Wants You to Live There
Facebook Messenger has just under a billion users. This is no exaggeration – this is a B-rated billion, so every small change in your application can have serious consequences. Their latest update gives you an overview of your recent messages and contacts and is called Home.
- Facebook Messenger has a new home screen. In addition to displaying your recent messages, it now displays your frequent contacts, upcoming birthdays, and who of your friends are currently online. It’s a more organized look than just listing your previous posts, but to be honest, it doesn’t look like a significant redesign. Perhaps this will change when we all owe bots. [Facebook]
- In other news, Google Photos now has a slideshow. Previously, users were instructed to press the arrow key to view photos, but now you can just select the slideshow option, relax and enjoy the memories of Kodak. This groundbreaking feature is now available online and in the Android app . [MY GOD! Chromium!]
- Meerkat has a new group video chat app. Just last year, Meerkat led the way among other mobile live video streaming apps, but has since surpassed Periscope’s Twitter and Facebook Live. They decided to ditch this crowded marketplace and create a new video chat app called Houseparty . It tries to keep it simple and fun, and you can invite people to a group chat via text message or via social media. [Recode]
- IOS 10 may have dark mode. So emo, right? Screenshots have emerged of what looks like a mode that replaces most of the operating system’s bright white menus with black and gray. Like my soul. Apple hasn’t confirmed that dark mode is in development, so it’s possible that it will die in the bud before iOS 10 goes public. Like my soul. [9to5Mac]
- Google has released a fourth preview of Android N to developers , suggesting a public release is fast approaching this summer. There is nothing remarkable in this build if you are already using the preview version, except for an Easter egg, which assumes that the OS will be named “Namey McNameface”. Hardy har har. [9to5Google]