Messenger

Meta is quietly rolling out a new “Communities” feature on Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The feature is designed to help organizations, schools and other private groups communicate in…

Meta’s making several big moves today to promote its AI services across its platform. The company has upgraded its AI chatbot with its newest large language model, Llama 3, and…

Meta announced on Tuesday it’s rolling out the ability for Messenger users to create shared albums in chats, send photos in high-definition, and share larger files up to 100MB in…

For the second time in just over a month, Meta’s apps, including WhatsApp, and to some extent, Messenger and Instagram, faced outages and intermittent issues. While it’s rare for services…

Telegram Business introduces options like a customized start page, plus the ability to set business hours, use preset replies, greeting and away messages, chatbots, tags for chats, and more.

Meta today is offering more details about how it plans to make its messaging apps, WhatsApp and Messenger, interoperable with third-party messaging services, as required by the new EU law,…

After years of promises and limited tests, Meta has started rolling out default end-to-end encryption protection for Messenger. In an announcement, Mark Zuckerberg said that personal chats and calls will…

Meta is bringing its Telegram-like “broadcast channels” feature to Facebook and Messenger after rolling it out to Instagram and WhatsApp earlier this year. The company announced today that the feature…

Meta is shutting down Messenger Lite, its lightweight stripped-down version of Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Users of the app are starting to see a message that advises them…

Meta said today that the company plans to enable end-to-end encryption by default for Messenger by the end of this year. The tech giant is also expanding its test of…

A Nebraska woman has pleaded guilty to helping her daughter have a medication abortion last year. The legal proceeding against her hinged on Facebook’s decision to provide authorities with private…

Meta announced new parental control tools across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger today. This includes a new parental supervision hub in Messenger, a feature that pre-emptively blocks unwanted DMs on Messenger…

Meta this week showcased its work on new generative AI technologies for its consumer products, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, as well as those being used internally at the company.…

Meta is killing its Messenger for Apple Watch app on May 31, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Apple Watch users who have the app installed are being notified…

Facebook Gaming, a division of Meta, has announced that you can now play games during video calls on Messenger. At launch, there are 14 free-to-play games available in Messenger video…

Facebook head Tom Alison announced today that the company is testing the ability for users to access their Messenger inbox within the Facebook app. Back in 2016, Facebook removed messaging…

Meta is internally testing a BeReal-like “Roll Call” feature in Messenger, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday. The feature, which was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra,…

Meta announced today that it has started gradually expanding testing default end-to-end encryption for Messenger. The messaging service is also bringing some of its standard features to end-to-end encrypted chats,…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this morning that “Community Chats” are coming to Messenger and Facebook Groups. The feature allows large Messenger groups to organize chats into categories, including audio…

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached…

Facebook this year has been struggling to maintain its position among the Top 10 apps on the U.S. App Store, according to an analysis of iPhone App Store data. As…

Meta said today it is expanding its end-to-end encryption test to individual Messenger chats. The social media giant said that starting this week, people included in the test will have…

Although the mobile app boom driven by pandemic lockdowns has long since passed, consumers’ mobile usage is still growing. According to new data released today by app intelligence firm data.ai…

Patent trolling, critics say, is guided by one principle alone: money. Yet tackling it remains a complex task with many angles. Today, a consortium called LOT — set up to…

Viber, the messaging app owned by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, has long been dancing around the area of fintech, launching services like money transfer and chatbot payments in various countries…

Facebook may be infamous for helping to usher in the era of “fake news”, but it’s also tried to find a place for itself in the follow-up: the never-ending battle…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the company is launching a digital designer clothing store called the “Meta Avatars Store.” Zuckerberg made the announcement during an Instagram Live with…

Meta is rolling out a new Calls tab for Messenger, the company announced this week. The company says the new tab will make it easier to connect with friends and…

After his departure from Facebook in November, many crypto industry insiders speculated where long-time executive David Marcus would land. Today, the former Messenger boss and Paypal executive offered some early…

Instagram is testing a new “Get Quote” button with select businesses on its app, Meta announced on Wednesday. The new button allows users to set up custom questions to ask…