Facebook's Messenger App Gets New 'Caller ID' Feature

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 25 May 2015

Facebook’s Messenger app is great at helping you stay in touch with others. And now, thanks to the introduction of a new “caller ID” feature, it’s also great at telling you who wants to get in touch with you.

David Marcus, Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook, recently announced that Facebook started rolling out a new feature for the Messenger app, feature that he likes to describe as “caller ID for messaging.” What does this new feature do? When someone contacts you, it provides more information about that someone.

Friends, family members, relatives, coworkers, and other acquaintances can use Facebook’s Messenger app to contact you. But when you have a long list of Facebook friends (and according to a Pew Research study from last year, the average adult has 338 Facebook friends), it can be hard to quickly recognize the person who wants to get in touch with you.

That is why Facebook introduced a new “called ID” feature. It displays useful information that will help you figure out who wants to get in touch with you.

Say that someone uses Facebook’s Messenger to contact you. Thanks to the new “caller ID” feature, you’ll see a larger picture of that someone, you’ll see information about how you are related to that someone, you’ll be able to determine who that someone is – an old friend who wants to get in touch, someone you met recently, and so on.

Here are a couple of images that show “called ID for messaging” in action.





“Caller ID for messaging” started to roll out on Android and iOS in the US, the UK, France and India.

In related news, I have to remind you that Facebook gave Messenger video calling capabilities. The video calling feature started to roll out late this April in select regions. About a month later, it started to roll out everywhere.

In further related news, I have to remind you about Hello, Facebook's caller ID and call blocking app for Android.



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