Facebook’s Messenger app is transforming and evolving into a tool that will be used for more than sending a funny cat emoji to friends, it’s also going to help its users get some business done.

In order to make this happen, Facebook is opening Messenger up to outside programmers, so that they can start building new features that will help Messenger be more business oriented. Messenger will also have added the ability to display store receipts and information about shipping to help its users keep track of their various interactions with businesses and merchants. This new feature will be rolled out starting with the beginning of April and it is expected to be available around the world by the end of April.

Facebook’s decision to update and upgrade its Messenger is, many believe, a means to keep up with the current trends. There is a growing number of mobile messaging applications that offer more direct and also more intimate ways to converse and connect with one’s friends.

Facebook is sensing that its young crowd is spending less time on Facebook and more time on the wide range of mobile messaging apps, such as Snapchat, Kik, Viber, Whisper, Tango, Secret and Line. These apps are taking young Facebook users away from Facebook and the social media giant feels the need to do something to fix it. Improving its Messenger is the main way to do that.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, talked about the Messenger expansion at a developers’ conference on Wednesday in San Francisco. He stated that the company has been building Messenger into a service to express more than just text. Zuckerberg promised that even more features would be rolling out in the coming months.

Facebook’s Messenger was introduced four years ago, and since then Facebook has been doing various tweaks to it, such as the ability to attach photos, video, swap stickers, make phone calls and even send money.

Messenger has more than 600 million users, it was revealed by Zuckerberg at the conference. The main reason for that is the fact that it is connected to Facebook, which has more than twice as many users, around 1.4 billion.

But there is a consequence to the popularity of mobile messaging, which translates to less time spend on social media. Less time on Facebook means fewer chances for the social media giant to learn about its users’ lives and interests and show the ads that bring in the big bucks for the company.

This threat is also what lead Facebook’s CEO to, aside from expanding Messenger, to spend a whopping $22 billion to buy WhatsApp last year. WhatsApp is a mobile messaging service with more than 700 million users; a big part of WhatsApp’s users is located in Western Europe and other less affluent countries outside the United States.

It is expected from Facebook to begin showing ads on Messenger, the moment people start spending more time on Facebook’s Messenger to do more than just chat. Obviously, Messenger is heading towards becoming a marketing vehicle, even though the mother company did not reveal its plans to turn it into one.

Eight years ago, Mark Zuckerberg made the decision to open Facebook to other programmers, and this current decision mirrors that in the entirety. Keeping in mind that the move turned Facebook into the multipurpose giant that it is today, one can only imagine what it would do for Facebook’s Messenger.

David Marcus, in charge of Facebook’s Messenger and former CEO at PayPal, hopes that Messenger becomes the multipurpose giant that Facebook is today. He concluded the company has opened the floodgates.

The social media giant is counting on apps from other developers to allow Messenger users to speak their minds with audio clips, GIFs and other dynamic formats that will make people smile and get them engaged.

During his presentation, Facebook’s CEO made a prediction that, at one point in the future, messaging apps will incorporate virtual reality technology. His prediction is largely based on Facebook’s decision to buy Oculus for $2 billion last year.

Facebook’s revenue for last year went up 58% to $12.5 billion, which allowed the company’s stock price to more than double from $38 in its initial public offering price in 2012.

Image Source: Digital Trends