Do you regularly find yourself involved in several different Messenger conversations at one time? Of course you do, everyone does, and one of the most annoying things that can happen when you are in the midst of several chats is you get a video chat request and it takes up your whole screen, keeping you away from your other threads.
Facebook knows your pain, and today, ahead of their F8 conference, Facebook announced that Messenger will soon have a new feature to fix this, called Video Chat Heads.
As described by Facebook:
"With Video Chat Heads, you can talk to your friends from a smaller chat head instead of using your full phone screen. This allows you to continue a video call while you're messaging other people, or - on Android - even while you are using other apps."
It's a simple, yet effective change, that will be welcomed by those who're looking to take a more collaborative approach to messaging - now, you and your friend or business partner will be able to stay directly connected (audibly and visibly) while maintaining your voices in a group conversation.
It's one of a couple of quick updates Facebook announced for Messenger ahead of F8 - the other being integration with Dropbox to enable file sharing within a Messenger thread.
The feature is enabled by tapping the 'More' or '...' button in Messenger, where, if you have the Dropbox app installed also, you'll be given the option to share files via your message thread. Videos and images - including GIFs - will be displayed in your chat, while you'll need to tap Open for anything else.
The updates come amid a flurry of new features and add-ons for Messenger, underlining Facebook's focus on making the app a more crucial part of people's everyday lives.
Video Chat Heads will be available for both iOS and Android users worldwide within the next few days. For Dropbox, you'll need the latest version of the Dropbox app, available now.