Facebook Messenger is now a standalone platform and that too an important one for the core experience of the social network. It recently touched the 1 billion MAU mark, which had been achieved by the original platform in 2012 and its companion messaging app ‘WhatsApp’ this year.
But to stay relevant and ‘walk the talk’, the user experience and interface of the platform needs to be updated every once in a while. And we see certain design and layout tests being conducted by Facebook every other day or week. In a similar manner, we’ve just noticed that the social media giant has recently ported the ‘exclusive’ Messenger design language into the desktop experience of the website.
The company is probably testing the waters with the new color and theme design as it has been rolled out to select users, rather than globally. We’ve contacted Facebook for more details on the change and will update you once we receive a reply.
Till then, we’re here to breakdown some of the key theme and layout changes that we’ve noticed.
- Core Theme Disrupted – At first look, you’ll be surprised to see that Facebook has disrupted the core theme of their platform. It has introduced the default ‘light blue’ color of the Messenger into the chat messages window on the Facebook website.
- Rounder and Cleaner – The chat interface might have disrupted the core theme, but it sure is more light and cleaner than the bulky chat pop-ups from before. The edges of the chat pop-up are rounder and flatter than before, while the bouncing message bubbles are also more clear and round, and give off the iMessage vibe it has always tried to capture.
- Color change – Also if you’ve changed the color of the chat messages of a particular friend(or page) on the Messenger app, then you’ll notice the same changes on the desktop website as well. Even the big ‘thumbs up’ is sent in the color set by you. But, there is no option to change the color in the chat pop-up on the website, which is disappointing.
- Icon Changes – If you’ve recently been active on Facebook, then you’d notice that there has been an icon overhaul — inspired from the mobile app — on the whole website. And the GIF, smiley, attachment, photos, and other icons in the chat pop-up have also been updated to match the whole icon theme on the platform.
This is only a dismal color(theme) and icon change to the messages pop-up window, which is still backward in functionality and features as compared to the complete Messenger platform. But the only question that strikes the mind in this situation is that — Why would Facebook disrupt its experience and opt to change the theme of the message pop-up section?
We could only see two possible directions this change could point towards — one that Facebook is about to slowly introduce more changes and update the whole Messenger experience on the desktop website. Or the whole Facebook theme and core experience could be getting a revamp — but its very unlikely.
So, are you seeing the updated chat pop-up on the website? If yes, please comment your thoughts on the change down below.
