Two Upcoming Features for Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger will soon have a data saver and new conversation topics.

Facebook Messenger is one of the popular apps in the world. It recently hit 1 billion users, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved with new features and functions. Facebook is doing exactly that by currently testing both a data saver and conversation starter features.

Data Saver

One major problem for mobile internet users is the limited data cap. With the amount of easily available, high-quality content on the web, users can run out of data quite fast. So in order to let users preserve their data as much as possible so they can chat with their friends on Facebook Messenger, the company has introduced a data saver feature.

The feature is only currently available on Facebook Messenger Beta for Android. The data saver option can be enabled in the settings menu. Once it’s turned on, it will begin to filter messages and hide content that consumes a lot of data such as images and video. The content can be viewed by tapping each one individually or disabling the feature.

Facebook has also added a data counter that displays how much actual data they feature has saved them. The counter can be reset when the users want to. Transferring from a data connection to Wi-Fi will automatically disable the feature.

Conversation Topics

Another new upcoming feature for Facebook Messenger is a way to have users engage their friends in conversations. The suggested conversation topics rely on the activity registered by the social network. Below each user’s name, a recent activity or future plan will be displayed as a suggestion on which to base your conversation with that respective user.

The conversation topics include a wide range of suggestions. It can display their most recent check-in location, the events they plan to attend, what they are playing, what music they are listening to and so on. The conversation topics are just suggestions but they can prove a great way to break the ice with a new friend or one you haven’t talked to in a while.

The feature was discovered by a user on iOS. Not many others have reported seeing the feature as Facebook may only be conducting a small test for random users. There haven’t been any details on the planned release date of both features for Facebook Messenger.

Image source: Flickr

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Nancy Young

When I was younger I used to spend almost all of my free time playing computer games. My mom and dad would go mental over this. “You’re never going to do anything with your life if you are going to play games all day” they used to say. What was even more unusual was the fact that I played more games than most of the guys in my friend group. Looking back, I have to admit that I probably played a bit too much, but I also learned a lot of great things. When I turned 20 I decided that it was high-time to make some money of my own, but the only jobs I could get were that of waitress or cashier. How exciting. After several excruciating months of serving tables I had a great idea: since I love gaming so much, why don’t I write about it? That’s when I started doing small writing projects on Elance. Eventually, I got an offer for a part-time job. During that time I learned all about content marketing strategies and how search engines work. I started writing about various topics such as technology, health and lifestyle and discovered that I was actually good at it. On November 24, 2014, I became part of the ArgyllFreePress team.