Facebook has officially rolled out multiple-account support for its Android Messenger app. The feature, which was previously tested with beta users and some non-beta users, lets multiple people to log in and use Messenger from a single device.
In the updated Messenger for Android, messages for different accounts are kept separate from each other. “Anyone else who shares the device will just see the number of notifications of messages that you have, but they will never be able to see the content of your messages,” according to Facebook’s post.
To use the new feature on the Android Messenger app, go to settings and head to the “Accounts” page, where users can be added. The first time a user logs in to a phone, a password will be required. The user can choose whether to always require a password for switching to their Messenger account on that device going forward.
This should be a welcome feature for families that share a tablet at home, for instance. While users can see notifications for new messages and unread counts for all accounts on their shared device, the actual contents of an account’s messages will only be visible if you switch to that account. If the user chose to require a password for each switch, their messages will be safeguarded from prying eyes.
On a separate Messenger-related note, a recently leaked document showed that Facebook has plans to introduce ads to its Messenger app. The ads would be sent to customers who have previously chatted with the business sending the ads.
