Cluttered Facebook Messenger Could See Big Changes in 2018

If you are starting to feel that the Facebook Messenger app seems to be too overloaded with features, then you are not the only one. Apparently, even Facebook’s vice president of messaging products David Marcus had to admit that, indeed, the app became too cluttered.

In a blog post, Marcus wrote that “Over the last two years, we built a lot of capabilities to find the features that continue to set us apart. A lot of them have found their product market fit; some haven’t.”

The blog post details Marcus’ predictions for 2018. If things go his way, Facebook Messenger users may expect a more streamlined messaging experience later this year.

“Expect to see us invest in massively simplifying and streamlining Messenger this year,” Marcus promised. He then added that Facebook’s goal is “to make Messenger the easiest and most delightful way for people to spend time together in happy and harder times.”

While the news is indeed a breather for users who are starting to get overwhelmed with Messengers numerous features, there is one thing that Marcus’ post failed to point out. At the moment, Facebook has not exactly revealed which parts in Messenger the company considers as clutter.

However, there are clues from Marcus’ post hinting at which features are likely to be retained. One of these is Group Chat as, according to Marcus, “Group chats make it easier for us to spend time together both on and offline… but we have more in store for this year.”

Visual Communication is here to stay as well. These include video chats, emojis, and GIFs as all forms have shown a significant rise in usage. For instance, there were 17 billion video chats, 500 billion emojis and 18 billion GIFs sent in 2017. And, as Marcus puts it, “Visual messaging . . . is where the industry is heading, and we won’t be looking back.”