It is now easier to react to messages in Facebook Messenger, be it in one-on-one conversations or in group chats. In an announcement on their blog, the social networking platform stated they have started rolling out two new features into their messaging app: reactions and mentions.
Message reactions works similar to the familiar reactions button at bottom of Facebook posts. With this feature, users can react to a message with one of several specific emoticos including love, smile, wow, sad, angry, yes and no emojis. To do so, you simply tap and hold a particular message, then tap the appropriate reaction emoji from the tab that pops up.
Similar to Facebook posts, you can also see how other participants in a Messenger conversation have reacted to a particular chat entry. This is displayed in the lower corner of the message, where you can view the reactions along with a number indicating how many viewers have reacted to that message. Tapping on a particular emoji will display specific details of which members have reacted in what way.
A visual cue indicates that a message has garnered a reaction from a group member, which shows up as you’re viewing the conversation. These notifications show up even if Messenger isn’t the active app -- they will show up on the lock screen as well.
The second Messenger feature announced is Mentions, which enables chat participants to call out a particular person in a group chat and direct a message toward them specifically. To mention someone, simply type the ‘@’ symbol and follow it with the person’s name on Facebook. A list of suggestions will appear as you type, from where you can pick the correct person. Note that when in a group chat, only members of that group can be mentioned within a conversation -- your other contacts who are not part of that group cannot be called out.
When a mention is sent, it will appear with highlighted text so that other group chat participants can more easily identify it as a mention. Also, when a person is mentioned they will see a special type of notification that alerts them to the fact they have been called out specifically. Tapping this notification takes them directly into the conversation, enabling them to respond to a query that might have been raised by another user. These notifications can also be disabled at any time.
This feature is being rolled out to to all Facebook Messenger users on iOS and Android.
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 "Facebook Messenger Reactions and Mentions")
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