Though it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of Facebook’s many new updates and features, the newest have been revealed just in time for the holidays. If you’re looking for different ways to spread holiday cheer via Facebook Messenger, you’ll likely be interested in the newest holiday-themed features to hit the app.
According to Facebook, Messenger’s holiday features are designed to “surprise and delight the ones you love.” If you’ve been planning to buy and mail out holiday cards to your friends and family, you might want to take a much easier route and head toward your Messenger app instead.
You can even skip mailing that card with the picture of everyone dressed up in matching sweaters. Photo Magic, which has been in testing for a month, allows you to take a picture and send it out to everyone in the picture immediately. If you’ve ever taken a photo and then forgotten to send it to someone, Photo Magic might be your solution, especially when you’re taking New Year’s photos and it’s easier to forget what you’re supposed to do with them afterward. You do have to enable the feature in your Settings menu in case you don’t want to easily share your holiday photos, or you can select “X” when prompted if you don’t want to try the feature.
New holiday features also include ways to customize your conversations with new emoji and nicknames options. These include the ability to change the colors of a family group thread or an “emoji response” when replying to a holiday meet-up in case you’d rather not resort to the boring old thumbs-up emoji. Probably the most fun holiday feature, however, is the ability to send snowflakes, Santas, or Christmas tree emoji — especially enjoyable if you want to pretend you are inside your own snow globe.
Also, although not entirely holiday-related, you can now select the Frozen sticker pack or the Star Wars pack. So if you’re feeling Grinchy, Facebook Messenger’s new features could help get you into a cheerier mood, at least during the holiday season.
