Facebook Messenger Gains New Slack-Like Shortcuts

Meta (previously known as Facebook) often adds new features (be it of its own or copied) to make things user-friendly for us. Earlier this year, we saw the messaging appgain the ability to send screenshot notifications, much like Snapchat. Now, Meta has added new shortcuts (taken from Slack) to Messenger to allow you to perform different functions in the app with simple commands. Check out the details below to find out how these new shortcuts work.

Facebook Messenger Gains Shortcut Support

Meta’s Messenger team recently sharedan official blog postto announce the new shortcuts for the messaging app. The shortcutslet users input simple commands to add custom notifications for messages, GIFs, and even the OG shrug emoji (¯_(ツ)_/¯).

Starting with two shortcuts, Messenger currently has the@everyone and /silent shortcutsavailable for Android and iOS users. Now, you might already know that you can add profile links of other users or mention them in a group using the “@” symbol in Messenger. The new “@everyone” shortcut, however, willlet you notify every member of a group chatwithout individually mentioning them.

The “/silent” shortcut, on the other hand, willdeliver a message to a recipient without showing them a pop-up notification. It will enable you to send a non-urgent message to a recipient without potentially disrupting others’ workflow or sleep. For those who don’t know, this shortcut is already available on Instagram DM as “@silent.”

In addition to the @everyone and the /silent shortcuts that are currently available, the Meta-owned company has confirmed to add more shortcuts going forward.

Therewill be a /Pay shortcut, and as the name suggests, it will let you easily pay a recipient in Messenger. It will be soon available for users in the US. A/gif shortcut will let you browse through different GIFs in a chatand send them to users. It will initially be available only for iOS users.

The/shrug (¯_(ツ)_/¯) and the /tableflip ((╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻) shortcutsadd the corresponding emojis to a chat without needing to type them out or copy-paste them from other sources. These will also be introduced on iOS first.

Meta has also confirmed that it will add more shortcuts to Facebook Messenger for other functions later in the year. So, what do you think about these new shortcuts? Do you think they are useful? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Dwaipayan Sengupta

A geek at heart, you’ll find me fidgeting with an iOS device or sitting in front of the laptop, scouring the internet to find interesting technological innovations. In my free time, you’d find me playing Valorant or listening to Pink Floyd.

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