Meta Provides New, Vacation-Themed Components to Messenger, Including Soundmojis and AR Results

Meta added a few new elements on the subject of holidays in Messengerincluding seasonal AR effects, new sound mojis to spread the Christmas spirit and fun additions for Messenger Kids.

First off, there’s a new AR effect developed in collaboration with beauty influencer Ashley Strong that adds “sparkles and shiny snowflakes that pop out of your eyes when you blink”.

“With this effect, you can magically freeze the screen – just open your mouth for a cold breath and freeze the screen.”

Not exactly sure if Christmas or Ice King from Game of Thrones, but it’s a new feature either way.

Messenger also has some new word effects. Now, if you wish people a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa, you can also trigger a flood of related emojis on the screen to add that extra thematic kick to your messages.

Meta also notes that with its new New Years Eve chat theme for Messenger and Instagram DMs that also includes word effects, you can “plan some seriously lit end-of-year parties”.

I don’t really like Meta’s attempts to use some cool slang in their announcements, which is possibly part of their wider plan to reconnect with youth. But yes, lighted parties, via Messenger. Go on.

There are new ones too Sound mojis, Meta’s attempt to add another unique dimension to emoji usage.

“Go to your Messenger Expression Bar, select the speaker icon, and find that gift and Christmas tree Emojis for a special Christmas carol surprise! “

Meta is also taking the opportunity to promote more currency exchange activities within messaging, with new, thematic money transfer visuals when sending money in the app.

The more people move their money in Metas Apps, the easier it will be for Meta to promote eCommerce activities. While this is a minor element in the broader announcement here, it can be most impactful in terms of Meta’s strategic plans.

In addition, Meta Messenger Kids has added a number of new Christmas elements, including an option to chat with Santa Claus (with messages to parents), new Christmas games and themed AR effects.

I mean, it gets pretty tight if you wanted to use the Santa Claus chat feature to find out what your kid really wants for Christmas, but it could be another way to get kids excited about the vacation – which still feels like as if it had been created far too early this time.

Some of these are fun and add an extra element to your holiday messages, others are a bit of a chore – but either way, they offer more options to make message engagement and interaction easier for the season.

You can try the new features in the latest version of the Messenger app.