Facebook on Monday rolled out some new features for its Messenger app designed to speed up the process of sending media files with messages.
Below the text box, you’ll now see options for taking a photo, choosing an image or video from your camera roll, selecting a sticker, and recording a voice message. Regular users of Messenger will notice that the ability to send videos is an all-new feature with this latest version.
In addition, you can now play received videos right in the app, and an improved search function has been added, too.
The new features are available now for iOS users, with the same update for Android expected later in the week.
The roll-out comes in the same month that the social networking giant announced it was pulling messaging features from its primary client with the aim of pressing users into downloading its standalone Messenger app, which currently has around 200 million users.
A spokesperson for Facebook said at the time it wants to move users to its Messenger app because it offers a faster service for sending and receiving messages than with its main app. Of course, the company is also keen to spread its massive user base across as many of its mobile offerings as possible, with boss Mark Zuckerberg determined to exploit the mobile space in a bid to boost revenue through lucrative ads.
Financial figures released by the company last week for the three-month period ending March 31 revealed that 59 percent of $2.27 billion in ad revenue for the quarter came via mobile ads.
The social media company is steadily building its stable of mobile app offerings. It acquired media-sharing app Instagram two years ago, and hit the headlines more recently with its acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion. Facebook’s own developers are also working on a number of apps, including newsreader Paper which launched in February.
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