Facebook redesigns Messenger, adds dark mode

Facebook

• Facebook is redesigning its messaging app
  Messenger.
• Messenger has got horrendously bloated in recent years,
  as ever-more features are added to it, from face filters to
  games to Stories to bots.
• A simplified version is going to start rolling out in
  the coming weeks — and Facebook also has plans for a dark
  mode.

Messenger is getting an fresh coat of paint.

The Facebook-owned messaging app is being redesigned, the company
announced on Tuesday, in an effort to cut down on the bloat and
confusing user interface that has plagued the app in recent
years.

Since being spun out of the core Facebook app into its own
product, Messenger has grown to more than 1.3 billion monthly
users. But even its own execs have admitted it has been
overstuffed with features across nine tabs, from games to
Stories, and there has been a substantive redesign promised for
more than a year.

“We built a lot of capabilities over the years but as you can see
it’s not as simple as the app was at the beginning of our
journey,” Messenger boss Stan Chudnovsky said at a press
conference in San Francisco.

Messenger’s planned dark mode.
Facebook

The redesign, which it first formally announced at the F8
conference earlier this year, rearranges Messenger’s features
into three tabs, adds some more customization features. It will
roll out in the coming weeks for users — and Facebook plans to
add a dark mode in the future too.

There are now three key tabs: Chats, People, and Discover. Chats
will hold users’ conversations with their Facebook friends, and
also feature Stories; People will give more prominence to Stories
and display friends who are currently active; and Discover will
be home to users’ interactions with businesses and games on the
app. 

It’s unclear how siloing off businesses into their own section —
rather than displaying them prominently in users’ main chat feed
— will affect Facebook’s ability to sell adverts, paid
messengers, and otherwise monetize the service.

Chudnovsky said Messenger “[doesn]t expect any changes to
monetization right away,” and predicted that having a standalone
Discover tab could help make it “more and more obvious to people
that this is a place they can talk not only to people but
businesses as well.”

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