Let’s Celebrate 10 Years of Messenger!

This month we’re thrilled to be celebrating Messenger’s 10th birthday with you. That’s 10 years of connecting more than a billion people around the world and helping people feel together even when apart. We’re grateful to everyone who’s joined us in creating 10 years of memories built from countless chat threads, late night video calls, sharing the latest meme GIFs and picking out the perfect emoji or sticker to capture the mood. 

Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen tremendous growth and transformation, but our purpose has stayed the same: to help people stay closely connected to those who matter. According to SimpleTexting’s 2021 Marketing Report, 78% of consumers say that checking, sending, and answering messages is the activity they do most on their smartphones throughout the day. We’re here for it!

To celebrate with you, we’ve pulled together an epic birthday bundle of 10 product features — many of which are starting to roll out today — that will help you create more memories with your friends and family. That’s what birthdays are all about after all! 🎂

Poll Your Friends with “Most Likely To” Games

Today, we’re thrilled to introduce a fun twist on Polls, one of Messenger’s most-loved features, with the launch of Poll Games! You can now play “Most likely to” in polls to help you discover what your friends really think about topics like who is “most likely to give gifts on their own birthday? 🥳”, “most likely to fight zombies while everyone else runs away? 🧟‍♀️” and “most likely to miss their flight? ✈️”, or just write your own prompt. To play a poll game in your group chat, tap “Polls” and select the “Most Likely To” tab to pick a question and select the names of chat participants to be included as potential answers.

Birthday Gifting using Facebook Pay

For Messenger fans in the US, we are introducing a new way to receive cash gifts directly through Messenger. When a friend sends you a cash gift for your birthday, you will be notified on Messenger and on Facebook with their gift message wrapped and accompanied by virtual balloons. Once you confirm your Facebook Pay details, the cash gift will be instantly deposited into your bank account. To send a birthday cash gift, go to the Facebook mobile app and tap the button that appears alongside your friend’s birthday posts in your Facebook News Feed or their profile.

Birthday Expression Tools

To amp up the celebratory mood, try out our new Birthday chat theme and our specially curated “Messenger is 10!” sticker pack. Fill the sky with purple and blue balloons with our Birthday Balloon 360 background and blow out birthday candles with our Birthday AR effect.

You can also send a catchy birthday song 🎂 Soundmoji and use a Message Effect to add a burst of confetti to your celebratory message or even wrap it up with a bow. 

A New Way to Share Contacts

When it comes to celebrations, the more people the merrier! We’re introducing a new way for you to easily share Facebook contacts with friends through Messenger. Simply select the contact you want to share, access the chat settings and tap “Share Contact” under the “More Actions” section.

Bonus! Sneak Peek: Customize Your Conversations with Word Effects

Today, we’re excited to share a sneak peek of Word Effects, an exciting new way to pair words with the emojis that have meaning to you and your friends. When used in your conversation, these words will trigger a delightful cascade of the emoji you selected. You now have the perfect way to highlight inside jokes, relive your memories and add extra delight to your favorite phrases, like that one song lyric stuck in your head or “Happy Birthday” (we suggest the 🎉 emoji). Word Effects will be coming to Messenger in the near future, so get excited for that update.

I feel honored to speak on behalf of the team here at Messenger to thank you for joining us on this journey. We are eager to keep building features and experiences that we hope you’ll enjoy for the next 10 years…and beyond.