By adding a new, dedicated ‘Call’ tab to the app’s lower function bar, Meta is leaning towards the growing use of Messenger for managing audio and video calls.
As you can see here, now, in addition to the ‘Chat’, ‘People’ and ‘Story’ tabs, you’ll also have a new ‘Call’ section, where you can connect with friends via Messenger’s calling options.
Messenger says Audio and video calling has grown rapidly, with the app now having 40% more daily callers than in early 2020, with more than 300 million audio and video calls being handled daily in Messenger, worldwide.
As such, it is understandable to focus more on it as an alternative, to facilitate more direct engagement, while also extending the use of Messenger without forcing new elements like games, shopping, etc.
Which Meta has done in the past. In 2016, in an attempt to turn Meta Messenger into a larger use tool, among other functionalities, Messenger gave a big push to Messenger bots before launching a separate tab for games.
You can see here, a stage, that the lower function bar was getting quite crowded.
Meta acknowledged this in 2018, when messenger chief David Marcus promised to go back to the roots of the app.
“Over the last two years, we’ve built up a lot of capabilities to find features that set us apart.” Many of them have found their products suitable for the market; Nothing. When we were rushing to create these new features, the app got very messy. This year we will see investments to make Messenger much simpler and streamlined. ”
This eventually led to the messenger layout we now have, with simplified tab exploration and streamlined discovery. In short, Meta admits that most people see Messenger as nothing more than a messaging app, which was a blow to the broader plan to monetize messaging in a variety of new ways.
Instead, it had to go back to the drawing board, and now, with the development of new usage behaviors, it is moving further in line with usage, as opposed to trying to expand its market suitability.
The growth of calls in Messenger is understandable, with its simplified video and audio connectivity tools, creating your existing chats and connections, and this new tab will help make it easier – although Meta doesn’t have much direct benefit for business push.
Maybe, through more instant direct calling, it will help provide increased connectivity opportunities for brands, but the main motivation is to increase regular user and existing activity trends.
Meta says the new tab aims to ‘create a space for people to deepen their relationship with their friends and community through shared experiences’.
It will probably succeed on that front, running more connections within the Messenger app.
