Today is the start of Facebook's F8 developer conference, and the company has some big Messenger news to share.
First up, Facebook says that later this year, it will begin to roll out a new project that it's referring to internally as LightSpeed. This version of Messenger is all about being light and fast, launching in less than two seconds and coming in at 30MB in size, well under the 70MB weight of the current Messenger.
Facebook also confirmed today that it's committed to making Messenger chats end-to-end encrypted by default, but it didn't have any other info to share on that matter.
Another feature coming to Messenger are dedicated spaces for your friends and family to communicate. In these spaces, you can share Stories, images, videos, and other features quickly and easily with loved ones. This feature is still in the early stages of development and there's no word on when it might launch.
Facebook says that video is an important part of Messenger, with people spending two billion minutes per day on Facebook video products, so it's cooking up a new video feature for Messenger. With it, friends can watch videos together in Messenger in real time. You'll be able to share a video from the Facebook app in Messenger and watch the video with your friends in real time while messaging or video chatting. This feature is launching globally later this year.
Finally, Facebook has confirmed that it's launching desktop Messenger apps for Windows and macOS. The Messenger Desktop app will include the same features as Messenger on your phone, including group video calls and text chat, and it will be released later this year.
Messenger is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, so it's nice to see that Facebook continues to work on improving the product and adding new features. Many of the things announced today are still a ways off, but some of them are easy to get excited about, like end-to-end encryption to help keep your chats secure. A faster, lighter Messenger is also something to look forward to as it'll help you get to chatting with friends faster.
Which of these Messenger announcements are you most excited about?