Facebook said the feature will help people to “connect, banter and share” using Messenger. Games are accessed by tapping the new game controller icon beneath the message bar. Selecting a game will immediately start it, hence the term “instant games.”
Games can be played alone using Facebook’s News Feed. The company is expecting most people to play competitively in Messenger though. Once you’ve finished a round, your score will be displayed in your current conversation. The other people in the chat will be given the chance to compete with you and attempt to gain a higher score.
New games can be discovered by searching from within Messenger. At launch, 17 titles are available including favourites like Words with Friends: Frenzy, PAC-MAN, Space Invaders, EverWing and Galaga. Facebook is partnering with developers to build additional titles and said that “many more” games are on the way.
All the games are designed to be social and competitive, encouraging you to invite other people to join and participate in your gaming. There’s score-based leaderboards and strong integration with group chats that’s designed to get you challenging your friends to games and wasting hours to the simple titles.
“The one billion people who use Messenger every month connect, banter and share in so many ways,” said Facebook. “Now they can connect and compete over their favorite games. We think this is just the beginning for games on Messenger — look for new titles to be added, and for new ways to play. Game on!”
The addition of games to Messenger marks Facebook’s ongoing efforts to make the app a place you never have to leave. It now supports voice and video calls, integration with third-party services and built-in mobile payments. Facebook is turning Messenger into a single app you can use for all your online activities, centred around socialising and chatting with friends.
Instant Games are based on modern HTML5-based technologies and can be played on mobile and desktop systems. To help drive traffic to the games, Facebook posts can link directly to individual titles. Tapping a post that contains the “Instant Play” call-to-action will immediately launch it without the waiting time and storage consumption of installing a new app.
Instant Games can be played in Messenger from today in 30 countries worldwide. They are currently limited to iOS 8 and later and Android 5 and later. Facebook said it will be bringing the games to more regions and platforms in the future, aiming to make gaming more sociable and accessible.
