Best daily deals

Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.

Facebook Messenger may soon get a big taste of Material Design on Android

According to a Reddit user, Facebook may soon be rolling out a big Material Design update to its Messenger app on Android.
By
January 20, 2016
Facebook Messenger

Ever since Google unveiled Material Design at I/O 2014, we’ve seen thousands of developers, big and small, bring the new design guidelines to their apps and games. One group of developers that have been doing a great job at not adhering to the Material Design guidelines are none other than the folks at Facebook, who have neglected to bring any sort of cohesive design language to their Android apps over the past few years. That actually, hopefully might be changing sometime soon, according to a user on Reddit.

In a server side update sent out to Facebook’s Messenger application on Android, one Reddit user was lucky enough to receive a full Material version of the app. Okay, it’s not a complete revamp on the design front, but it’s definitely a start. As you can see from the screenshots attached below, Facebook looks to have added a FAB (floating action button) so users will more easily be able to compose messages. Tapping the FAB will bring up a series of bubbles that will let you search, add contacts, create groups and make calls. One other notable change in the new version is the switch to a toggle instead of a check box to turn on the Chat Heads feature of the app.

10 awesome examples of material design (updated)
News

Facebook appears to be testing this update on just a select number of users at this point, but we surely hope the social networking giant rolls it out to more users in the near future. What are your thoughts? Do you like the Material Design enhancements, or are you fine with the current version? Be sure to tell us your thoughts in the comments.