Instagram, Facebook-owned, introduced filters on its story recently, making itself better than Snapchat. In a bid to standardise these filters and masks across its platforms, Facebook has introduced a host of filters, effects and emojis on Messenger.
Facebook Messenger has the ability to make payments on its bots, and now you can chat with your contacts with emojis, filters, effects and masks on video calls. Rival Skype also has a similar feature on its app.
“Video chats with your friends and family in Messenger just got a whole lot more fun. Check out the awesome new features – like animated reactions, filters, masks and effects, and the ability to take screenshots – available for one-on-one and group video chats. You can now share your emotions with a reaction, add a filter to feel like your best self, make someone laugh with a bear mask, and even take pictures of your time together,” Facebook blog read.
Details of the new features
Using any of the emojis, you can express love, laughter, surprise, sadness or anger. These reactions will animate onto the screen and then disappear, so you can express yourself in the moment.
Most reactions have different versions depending on whether your face is on or off the screen. Tap the love reaction (like when you’re in a group video chat with your three best friends and someone shares amazing news) when the camera is facing you and tap it again when the camera is facing outward to see the difference.
Choose from a variety of filters, ranging from subtle lighting tweaks to bold colour changes – like black and white, red, or yellow. You can even choose to preview the filter before actually letting others see.
Masks work just like filters, with an animated object placed in front of your face on the screen. These masks are similar to ones available on Snapchat. They can range from adding spectacles on you, showering down snow, bunny teeth in the front or even a graduation cap.
Finally, what is the point of having all these filters and emojis if you cannot even save them for later? Messenger allows you to take a screenshot of the video in a point in time so that you can save it, send it to friends or post it online. There is a camera icon on the app that does the work for you, so you don’t have to worry about your smartphone buttons.
These filters are interesting from the point of view of people who use Messenger video calling frequently. The features don’t seem to aim at acquiring more users because, at the end of the day, a video chat is a video chat. However, millennials love such features and this app is bound to resonate with a lot.
If you’re not on Messenger, download it and check out these exciting features. They might give you an opportunity to take a photo of you with a friend far away along with interesting filters and masks.
Source: FB Newsroom
