Before anyone starts thinking this stuff is super-innovative and new, let me tell you what's really going on here: Facebook wants to make Messenger into a platform in the same way the big Asian chat apps are. Things like Weixin/WeChat or LINE. I mean, just look at the most recent additions to Messenger:
- Stickers. These grew in popularity starting in Asian apps. [0]
- Using Messenger for payments [1] and to send money to each other [2] have been in WeChat since at least last year.
- Offering "official accounts" for businesses to "chat" with customers. [3] Yep, that's there too.
- And of course, sharing of messages with rich-media content from other apps. [4] To give an example, with WeChat you can pop open QQMusic (a music streaming app) and share a song with your friend that they can play and stream without leaving WeChat.
All of these features were pioneered in Asia. They're either trying to bring the innovations westward in the hopes that they can build a similar platform, or they're defending against the possibility that foreign apps like this will expand and take over their marketshare.
I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of thing was the reason they split Messenger from the main Facebook app in the first place.
[0] http://www.wechat.com/en/features.html#emoticons
[1] https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-adds-payment-support-for-b...
[2] https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-allows-money-transfers-bet...
[3] http://smallbiztrends.com/2014/03/how-to-use-wechat-for-busi...
[4] http://dev.wechat.com/wechatapi/messages-moments
- Stickers. These grew in popularity starting in Asian apps. [0]
- Using Messenger for payments [1] and to send money to each other [2] have been in WeChat since at least last year.
- Offering "official accounts" for businesses to "chat" with customers. [3] Yep, that's there too.
- And of course, sharing of messages with rich-media content from other apps. [4] To give an example, with WeChat you can pop open QQMusic (a music streaming app) and share a song with your friend that they can play and stream without leaving WeChat.
All of these features were pioneered in Asia. They're either trying to bring the innovations westward in the hopes that they can build a similar platform, or they're defending against the possibility that foreign apps like this will expand and take over their marketshare.
I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of thing was the reason they split Messenger from the main Facebook app in the first place.
[0] http://www.wechat.com/en/features.html#emoticons
[1] https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-adds-payment-support-for-b...
[2] https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-allows-money-transfers-bet...
[3] http://smallbiztrends.com/2014/03/how-to-use-wechat-for-busi...
[4] http://dev.wechat.com/wechatapi/messages-moments