Taking a page from Snapchat, Facebook announced today the addition of Messenger Codes to its popular chat app. Like the alluded to Snapcodes, the new feature allows a user to take a photo of someone else’s Messenger Code and add that person to their address book. With the introduction of this feature, Messenger users no longer need to be friends with someone on Facebook to start talking to them on Messenger. They also look pretty cool.
“Messenger Codes are the best way to find people in Messenger, whether you’re standing side-by-side or looking at your computer screen. No matter where you are — online or at an event — all you have to do is scan a code someone shares with you, and then you can start that important conversation,” says the company in a post about the new feature on Facebook. “We also took special care to make Messenger Codes as beautifully designed as possible so you can use them everywhere — on business cards, online, or in-store and anywhere else you like.”
To compliment Messenger Codes, Facebook is also launching Messenger Usernames and Links. The former allows users to search for new contacts via an unique username — “We are all unique human beings but sometimes we share the same name!” says the social media giant — while the latter is a unique link Messenger users can share online to make it easier for friends and family members to add them to their address book.
If you launch Messenger and the new features aren’t immediately available, don’t worry; Facebook says it’s rolling them out gradually to users around the globe.
The company also announced today that more than 900-million people are using the Messenger on a monthly basis. To put that number in perspective, the chat app hit 800-million users just three months ago. 900-million monthly users puts Messenger just behind Facebook’s other ubiquitous chat app, WhatsApp, which hit the one billion milestone late last year.
[source]Facebook[/source]
