How To Use Facebook Messenger's Newest Function

If the golden days of your social life existed within the realms of AOL Instant Messenger in the 2000s, you're probably now a big fan of Facebook Messenger. Facebook has essentially become the most upgraded and ultimate instant messaging service, with buddy lists and profiles and the whole nine yards. It's a place to store friendships, maintain them and make them strong, too. As as their messenger service evolves, it becomes more and more multifaceted, giving us not only the opportunity to easily keep up with friends, but to engage with the app in the same way that we do with our main text apps — which is huge. Now, the Messenger app on Facebook is rolling out a new feature to make us even more addicted to it. And trust me, you're going to want to know how to to use reactions on Facebook Messenger, it's going to be your new favorite thing.

Reactions give you the ability to react to each individual message with an emotion or icon, rather than words. Just in the same way that you can like a comment, you can now like a message. Or dislike it, or laugh at it, or throw hearts at it, what have you. It's a quick way to acknowledge something and express how you feel without having to find the words.

Personally, my friends and I use messenger a lot to help each other pick out outfits. We'll send each other pictures of ourselves wearing different clothes and ask for feedback. With reactions, it's easier than ever to crowd source. But it's also great for one on one conversations when you're on the go. Sometimes it's easier to keep a conversation going when you can just tap an icon, rather than wait for the time to send a proper response. And let's be real, we all do most of our texting on the go — while we're walking, eating, in a meeting, doing our business — don't lie!

OK, so here's how to actually use the function:

Update Messenger

If you don't have Facebook Messenger already, head to the app store ASAP and get on it! If you do, still head to the app store and make sure you're up to date on the latest version. Once you're all settled up, open the app and start a conversation!

React!

To react to something, press and hold any message, and then tap the screen to make your selection from the love, smile, wow, sad, angry, yes and no emojis.

Check Your Reactions

When someone reacts to a message you sent them, you’ll see a small animation when you look at the conversation. You’ll be able to see how people have reacted to your messages in the lower corner of the message. There, you’ll see the reactions people chose alongside a number showing how many people reacted to the message, aka, it's like checking fan mail. Tapping on the emojis will show you which members of your conversation reacted which way — this will feel totally intuitive as you've used it before on your newsfeed. Now carry on with that conversation!