Facebook Messenger got festive on Thursday with some holiday touches that included special emoji, new chat colors and some old favorites for chat heads. It also got a little more interesting with photo tagging.
The update to Facebook Messenger arrived on Android and iOS at the same time, and is waiting on anyone how has the chat app already installed.
The biggest feature rolled out in the update is Photo Magic, which is fresh out of a month-long period of testing. Photo Magic searches out familiar faces in photos and will automatically tag the ones it recognizes.
"It's fast, easy, and simple," says Facebook. "And you can turn this feature on or off at anytime as well as control if you are recognized in your friends' photos in the timeline and tagging section of your Facebook settings."
Once the update is installed, Messenger will prompt users to try Magic Photo or ignoring it. To fire it up, users will need to visit the app's Setting menu.
And after a photo is taken and tagged, Photo Magic will give users the option to share the picture or to hold off on doing so. The pictures can be shared publicly or privately.
"So at a time of the year when more photos are taken than any other (last year Messenger saw hundreds of millions of photo sends on New Year's Eve), we're making it simple for you to share those happy moments," Facebook says.
The update deepened Messenger's customization options by allowing users to set colors, nicknames and emoji for chat heads and chat threads. There are the snow globes.
Facebook brought snow globes back to Messenger, so now snowflakes fall over the faces of contacts and conversations for everyone north of the equator.
Snowflakes are falling now, but those will soon be replaced with confetti to celebrate the history launch of the year 2016.
"We hope you enjoy using these new features this holiday season and into the New Year. From everyone on the Messenger team, happy holidays," says Facebook.
