Facebook Messenger introduces FacePile and new indicators for ‘Sending, Sent, Delivered and Read’

Talking to people through a message service or text has become one of the strongest elements of communication, but sometimes that obvious feeling of disconnect can break the flow of a conversation.
Some companies have been using “read receipts” for quite some time, but Facebook is looking to improve the formula pretty aggressively. As revealed by TechCrunch on December 19, Facebook Messenger is introducing several new features that should help users feel like they’re actively engaging in a conversation with someone else, or even a group of people. The first feature is called FacePile, and Facebook actually had built it initially to show you, with small pictures of faces, which of a user’s friends had liked a website. It’s now been repurposed for Messenger, and in a group chat will show which person has actually read the message.

The other key feature is an overall speed boost to Messenger across the board. With that, though, Facebook is also adding a new way to stay up-to-the-second regarding a message you typed up. Now, when a message is sent, Messenger will actually show that status to you through “Sending.” Then, “Sent” will appear, followed by “Delivered” when the message has arrived at its destination. Finally, when the message is read, the user will see “Read,” as has become the custom these days.

“What were really want is Messenger to feel like the fastest and most reliable mobile messaging product” Product Manager Lexi Franklin tells me. “We’ve done a lot of work on performance on the backend, reducing end-to-end latency…to improve efficiency on all device types.“

The new features and speed improvements are rolling out to iOS right now, and users should see the changes in the coming days. Do you use Facebook Messenger?