After introducing Messenger Day earlier this month, Facebook is now rolling out two new additions to conversations called Message Reactions and Mentions. Message Reactions lets users react to messages in group conversations, while Mentions lets a user know that they have been mentioned in a conversation.
Messenger Reactions lets users send a reaction to any single message on a thread. Facebook says that this is aimed at users to quickly show acknowledgement or express how they feel. Users will be able to choose between love, smile, wow, sad, angry, yes or no emojis. To react to a message, users need to press and hold any message and then choose the reaction. The number of people who have reacted to a message will be displayed in the lower right corner. Tapping on the emojis will let people know which members reacted in which way. Messenger Reactions can also be used for one-on-one conversations. If you are looking at the conversation, users will see a small animation of the emoji, and if the app is closed, there will be a notification.
Mentions lets users directly notify anyone within a group conversation, just like WhatsApp. To mention a particular person, users need to type the ‘@’ symbol, or start typing the first few letters of the name or the nickname of the person. They will then see a list of names, from which the user can select the person that they wish to mention. When someone is mentioned, that user will get a special notification, letting them know that they have been called out. However, users can also choose to turn off these notifications.
Messenger Reactions and Mentions have started rolling out to users, and should be available globally soon. Both these features will also be available for Work Chat in Workplace.