Facebook Messenger Hits 900 Million Users Milestone

Nowadays, Facebook is about much more than people sharing pictures of breakfast and bitching about their friends, it’s also a valuable tool for businesses.

Facebook has launched a new feature in its Messenger app that lets users scan circular patterns to get a conversation started.

The company has managed to entice 100 million users to join its Messenger app since January.

Similar to Snapchat, Messenger Codes can be used on a peer-to-peer basis to add a friend on Messenger, but companies will be able to install the RFID feature as advertisements and marketing materials, as well.

The codes are made to be “beautifully designed”, the post explained, such that job seekers and businesses could include them on a business cards for easy network building. “Below a business page title will now be their username preceded by an “@” symbol.

The website also learned that the Facebook Messenger usernames are in fact the same which already exists on web addresses of users’ profile pages, if they have defined them. “Because each username is unique, they also help people to identify your exact business, even if you have a relatively common name”, Facebook said. New features come as the first step to monetizing the platform that has 900 million users worldwide. “Our early tests in 2015 with brands are showing that interactions will happen more and more in your Messenger threads, so we’ll continue making it easy for you to engage with businesses, and we’ll also do more to enable additional businesses and services to build the right experience in conversations”. Similarly, Messenger Codes will be put to the same use, with a Messenger window popping up with a customer service bot on the other end. The idea here is that businesses can set the tone or pass along important information to those who are reaching out to chat. Facebook really aims to provide users the avenue where they can communicate with one another as fast as possible.

Though the list of 20 suggested businesses on the Facebook Messenger app are the businesses with which Messenger users can potentially chat, it is not clear whether users would actually be keen on interacting with those businesses. You’ll begin a conversation and, as far as we can tell, it’s unlikely to go to the “filtered” or otherwise hidden portion of the person’s Messenger.