Messenger has been separated from the main Facebook core app for quite some times now. With the social media giant continued attempt to make Messenger a standalone on its own, on June 16th, 2016, Messenger has added a set of new tabs.
They consist of Home, Favorites, and Birthday reminder tabs.
The redesign is meant to make users easier to see which of their friends are online, whose birthdays are coming up, and their favorite people to chat with. The redesign is also Facebook's hope to offer more hierarchy so users can continue the conversations where you've left off, or start new ones with people they often engage with.
With the new design, users can see their lower navigation to see other tabs like calls, contacts, groups and their own personal profile. Before the update, the bar is located at the top, and users only have one dominant view which was conversation they've had with friends. In the new design, the top bar is replaced with a search bar. This essentially replicates Facebook's mobile search experience.
The strategy to make Messenger "social" on its own, is in line with Facebook's attempt to make Messenger the way to start private conversation by slowly removing Facebook's core messaging feature. To make Messenger able to give that experience people wanted, Messenger needs to look like a matured standalone app that does more than just supplement Facebook's core app.
Facebook's Messenger is having more than 900 million users using it each month. The number is so far succeeded with only WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook. But when WhatsApp is trying to deliver the simple and straightforward means of conversation, Messenger wants to be the more sophisticated and feature packed.
Facebook wants users to use Messenger as a way to connect with people and businesses. And for that matter, Facebook wants Messenger to be more than just an app to send and receive messages; it wants to give a whole new level of experience.
A week prior the redesign, Messenger has added SMS capabilities and a new emoji game. And with now the redesign comes to the public, Facebook is trying to "reinvent inbox" with Home.
David Marcus, Facebook's Messenger boss, said that with the new Home tab, Facebook is aiming to make Messenger simpler to use by presenting more relevant information.
Or as Facebook described it: "Up until now, most inbox experiences haven't kept up with the new ways people connect."
