This is the new design of the Facebook Messenger application

Back in September, the Zuckerbergers announced that their instant messaging application Facebook Messenger was going to undergo a rather radical design overhaul. Today, this change is already beginning to reach the vast majority of the population en masse. A design whose main intention is, in the developers' own words, 'to simplify the user experience by eliminating unnecessary elements and emphasizing the most important features'.

In this sense, the new design of Facebook Messenger presents only three lower tabs and two upper icons displaced to the right of the screen.Of course, we still don't know anything about the dark mode that they promised in September. The developers have chosen to ensure that this dark mode, which would allow us to save battery life and prevent our eyes from getting so tired, will arrive soon without specifying an exact date. Now, getting down to business, how is the new design of Facebook Messenger and what do we think?

The new Facebook Messenger… is it the design we expected?

When you open the application, the first thing that surprises you is that open chats seem bigger than before, for which the view appreciates it . Above the conversations, as always, we have some suggested contacts to start a conversation... something that seems somewhat useless to us, since I'm afraid that few will open the application as if it were a chat service. Would the app suffer if they removed this option? We think not.

Very good for the arrangement of the lower tabs.In the first we have the chat screen, it is logical. On this screen, if we look at the top, we have two new icons. The first is a direct access to the camera to start publishing Stories, with filters, masks... The icon that we have right next to it is another way to start a new conversation. If we press, the contact list will open and we can select who we want to talk to or even make groups of contacts. We also have a search bar to better locate the desired contacts.

In the following we have the contact list, in which we can also see the Facebook Stories... if someone continues to use them (or used them at some point). A quick greeting icon has been added to each contact. This column is called 'People'.

A tab dedicated to business and game bots

The third tab is the newest of the three, called 'Suggestions'. This screen is divided into two parts, 'Companies' and 'Games' In the first tab we can find popular companies with which to start a conversation. For example, we have found a call 'Free things' to find out about free samples that we can receive at our home. Click on its icon and start chatting with the bot. This will tell you what you have to write to start receiving suggestions. In 'Recent' you have all the conversations that you have started with the companies or Facebook pages. In the 'Games' tab you have at your disposal a series of easy-to-use video games with which to spend some time entertaining.

In general terms, Facebook Messenger is on the right path of simplification and minimalism, although it is true that dark mode is seems very necessary.Right now, opening Facebook Messenger is similar to opening the flashlight app. We look forward to that dark mode.