Facebook adds Mentions and Reactions to the Messenger app

Facebook is always tinkering with different features to make the platform even more engaging. In a bid to do just that, the company has added two new features to its Messenger app: Mentions and Reactions. The company in their blog post mentioned that the update will start rolling out today and both Android and iOS users will receive this feature in the coming days.

If you have used Twitter beforehand, you know how ‘Mentions’ work.  This feature will immediately notify someone when they are mentioned in a conversation. The feature would work for both for individual and group chats.

When you want to mention or tag someone in an ongoing chat, simply type the ‘@’ symbol and write the persons name and nickname. Then out of the list select which person you want to mention. The message with the mention in it will appear with highlighted text to other people in the group.

Along with that people who have been mentioned will get a notification to let them know that they were ‘mentioned’ in which conversation. Users can then jump right into the chat that they have been mentioned in, instead of finding which group called out.

The second feature will be of more interest to a lot of users and something that people have been after along with the dislike button is the Reactions feature. Users will now be able to react to individual messages in the same way they do for different posts.

To react to any message just press and hold. Now select from the desired reaction: angry, sad, love, smile, wow or yes.  You will also be able to keep track of how people have responded to your message in the lower corner.

Whenever you send a message, you’ll now be able to see how people have reacted to it in the lower corner. Simply tapping on the emojis will allow you to see who and how people reacted to your message. This again applies to individual and group chats.

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