Facebook's Messenger app getting a simpler redesign

Facebook Messenger’s Android and iOS platforms are getting a major design update. The update seems to focus more on making the design simpler for the users. The Chatbots and discover feature will be removed. Bots in Messenger are a way to interact with a service that doesn’t involve communicating with a human. Few businesses allow users to access their menu and order food items using their bot. Although the feature is useful to some extent, it isn’t too accurate. Messenger Games are some light games that are quite popular with the users.

Chatbots, businesses, and games can still be found in the new interface, but it needs to be searched via the search bar. Businesses can also be contacted directly via their Facebook pages, as earlier.

The upcoming update, which is due for a rollout next week, will have the “People” section. The section has two tabs; one is a story which shows the recent stories from the friends. The stories are placed in square tiles showing the story overview. It’s strangely very similar to Snapchat’s version of story placement. The other tab has the “Active” tab which shows the active users in the friendlist at the top. With this update, Facebook seems to be concentrating to retain the users in the app itself and make sharing of stories and chats simpler. The Dark mode of the app looks very elegant.