Facebook Messenger Gets Slack-Like Shortcuts, Mentions, GIFs

Facebook Messenger has rolled out a host of new features called “Shortcuts” to be used in the form of commands while messaging. The new commands help users perform different tasks, such as notifying everyone in a group, or silently send a message without notifying others in the group. Users will also be able to send GIFs and ASCII emoticons on Facebook Messenger.

New Shortcuts are available to Facebook Messenger users on iOS and Android devices starting today. Let’s take a closer look at the new commands released by the Facebook messaging app and find out how they work.

New Shortcuts For Facebook Messenger: Here’s How They Work

The newly introduced Shortcuts feature will let users accomplish different tasks by typing different commands. For instance, you can simply use @everyone command if you want to notify all users in the chat. The command can be used to ask questions in the group or to remind members of an older message.

On the other hand, if you do not want to notify the group members while sending a message, you can use the /silent command. The feature could be helpful when messaging friends living in different time zones.

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Notably, the Meta-owned messaging service is also working on adding a new /gif command to allow users to send GIFs to users and groups on Messenger. Further, users will also be able to use /shrug and /tableflip commands to send tableflip (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻) and shrug (¯_(ツ)_/¯) emoticons on Facebook Messenger.

While both the /silent and @everyone Shortcuts will be available on iOS and Android devices starting today, the other three commands will be first rolled out to iOS users on in the coming weeks.

On a side note, Facebook will also be rolling out the /pay command shortcut to Messenger users in the US in the near future. The new feature will allow them to send and receive money on the app.

What do you think of the new Shortcuts released by the Facebook Messenger app? Do let us know in the comments section below.