Facebook has yet again blatantly copies Snapchat and has introduced new features to Messenger including animated reactions, filters, masks and the ability to take screenshots to both one-on-one and group video chats.
Starting with the animated reactions, users can now choose one of the five Messenger Emoji icons including love, laughter, surprise, sadness or anger. These reactions will animate onto the screen and then disappear. Further, most reactions have different versions depending on whether user’s face is on or off the screen.
Facebook has also introduced new video filters as well. Users can choose from a variety of filters, which allow users to talk to each other while being coloured in a different tone. “Choose from a variety of filters, ranging from subtle lighting tweaks to bold colour changes—like black and white, red, or yellow,” the company says in a blog post.
Moving on to Masks in Messenger, the brand has introduced some new masks and effects including falling hearts and twinkling stars for video calling. Unlike, animated reactions, masks and effects stay on the screen for the duration of the video chat or until one take them off or switch to another one.
Lastly, coming to screenshots, Facebook has now allowed users to take screenshots in both one-on-one and group video chats. In order to that, users need to tap the camera icon to take a picture of the video chat and save it on one’s phone or can also share to social media platforms. Interestingly, most of these features are already available on Snapchat.