Just because Facebook has been recently doing a lot to diversify Messenger features, it doesn’t mean the company behind by far the most popular social network on the planet has forgotten about the core functionality of its app, which is getting in touch and sharing content with other people. At this very moment, the company is planning on introducing new ways to start chatting with your Facebook buddies, and one of them is based on something called Messenger Codes. These are basically sequences of dots and dashes wrapped around one’s Facebook profile picture which can be scanned with a camera in order to start a conversation with someone. Sounds similar to Snapchat Codes? That’s because this is basically the same thing.
In case you don’t see a purpose in this feature as anyone you might want to communicate with via Messenger is probably your Facebook friend already, note that this isn’t just a way to chat up an individual, but also a company, a brand, or an information bot. Maybe you’re at an airport and want some quick information from its customer service – why wait in line at the help desk or go to the company’s website in order to start an instant messaging session with its representatives when you can simply scan the Facebook Code printed on the nearby poster and ask all your questions through Messenger right away? The timing of these Facebook Codes also doesn’t seem to be random as recent reports suggest that the company is releasing new publisher content this very month. Content specifically tailored for big brands, i.e. their efforts to integrate Messenger into their services. Content such as Facebook Codes.
According to Messenger’s lead developer David Marcus, the option to scan Facebook Codes in Messenger is “rolling out gradually” but should be available worldwide rather soon, presumably in the next couple of days. In related news, you can now start chatting with anyone on Facebook by typing their username after “m.me/” in the URL bar of your browser. Other than that, Facebook also announced that its Messenger app has now officially passed 900 million of monthly active users. This is pretty impressive given how it was only three months ago that Messenger passed the 800-million milestone and it seems that the app is on the right track to become Facebook’s second service with over a billion of monthly active users.