The popular Discover tab in Facebook Messenger, which allowed people to search for nearby places and businesses has now been removed from the app. The move follows a major Messenger redesign, which was announced in 2018, wherein the social media giant promised to make the app simpler and less cluttered.
The app was first under David Marcus, former Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook. Marcus followed the do-everything design philosophy in Messenger, wherein the app was organised in a way to make it a hub for connecting with the people and businesses. Marcus now heads Facebook’s cryptocurrency division.
The app is now headed by Stan Chudnovsky, which was also the former Head of Product and Messenger. Chudnovsky has streamlined and brought back the core functionality of the app and has removed all the business-focused elements that weren’t serving users and were designed to make Messenger a text-based customer service hub. As part of the streamlining process, Chatbots and Instant games have been removed too. Facebook had introduced Instant Games, including Pac-Man and Words With Friends Frenzy, to Messenger in 2016.
The Discover tab, which was present in the bottom right corner of the app has now been removed. The tab allowed users to connect with business accounts, a few of them were operated by AI bots. While the Instant Games will still be available on the web, they have been removed from the app. You won’t be able to access games from the main Facebook app, either.
Now, under the new design, the company is promoting a ‘People’ section, wherein you can view your friend’s Facebook Stories in large squares. There is now also a contact list organised in order by your most-used contacts who are frequently online.
The new user interface design is more cleaner and allows people to use Messenger in a way that it was originally intended to be used.
You should also keep in mind that Facebook has now made it compulsory to have a Facebook account if you want to sign up for Messenger. Messenger now has over 1.3 billion people.
