Facebook Messenger has swiftly become the world's #1 messaging app with more than 1.3 billion monthly active users. While you probably know how to make video calls and send animated GIFs, the app has a bunch of additional features and functionality beneath the hood. Here are 11 tools you might not know about - and how to use them.

Facebook’s public image has been taking a beating lately, and things just keep getting worse for the social media platform.

According to a recent report from Business Insider India, Facebook has been uploading info from its users’ email contacts since 2016. Facebook did this “unintentionally” and without warning when users created their accounts for the first time, or when using their email accounts for login confirmation.

It’s about to get a lot easier to manage conversations on Facebook. The social giant — when it isn’t busy ruining your account security — is adding a new sort-of threaded reply feature for all users’ Messenger conversations.

I’m a tremendous fan of using “dark mode” or ”night mode” on my phone whenever possible. Beyond just being easier to look at, dark modes use less battery power since your phone’s not having to power that bright white screen.

Between Slack, WhatsApp!, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Hangouts and Telegram, I've been known to miss a message or two as I suffer from notification fatigue and forget to go back to an app. Volt aims to end that pain by delivering a single messaging platform that brings a bunch of different messaging systems to a single screen on Mac, Windows and Linux systems.

Typos happen. Now when they happen on Facebook Messenger, you have the option to delete them. Facebook finally started rolling out the ability to delete Messenger messages this week.

A little while ago, it was revealed that Mark Zuckerberg and other high-level Facebook execs had access to a special feature that allowed them to erase messages they had sent to user inboxes. So, if The Zuck sent you a message, you might find it gone days or weeks later. Last year, Facebook said a similar feature would be made available to everyone. That new feature as now arrived in Facebook Messenger for iOS and Android. Here's how it works and how to use it.

iPhone users have it easy. iMessage comes preinstalled, and it achieves more than even the best messaging apps on Android. iMessage is end-to-end encrypted, it supports SMS and it’s packed with features that range from gimmicky (Animoji) to can’t-live-without-it useful (Memoji).

The experience of one iPhone user messaging another is seamless, secure, and convenient. The same can’t be said for Android users.

Facebook is planning to merge its three messaging services — WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram’s private messages — into a single messaging platform.

Facebook Australia has launched a new desktop app called Messenger Video. The app - which is available from today - does exactly what is says on the tin with an emphasis on group video calls and multitasking. Here are the details.

It's been a couple of months since Facebook started its revamp of Messenger. The old version was getting increasingly cluttered so Facebook ran the broom through. Now, they're back to adding features but in a less haphazard way than before. Starting today, a number of new enhancements to photos are making an appearance.

Mark Zuckerberg was caught out earlier this when it was found he, and other high-level Facebook execs, had the ability to erase messages they had sent to other people's inboxes. That feature will be extended to the rest of the world according the list of "Coming Soon features.

Facebook Messenger has become one of the most popular messaging services on the planet. The company says it has about 1.3B global users and they have been providing feedback on new features and changes they'd like to see. Facebook says they've responded with an updated user interface and a number of other changes.

Ah, Facebook. There's something to be said for having all your social media needs in one place, but the problems with Facebook are as numerous as its users. Here we've collated some of our most useful, interesting and amusing Facebook tips and tricks so you can take your take back your News Feed, Timeline and Profile.

Whether it's a series of blinking ellipsis or an explicit notification that "someone's typing", the messaging feature known as a typing indicator is both a useful tool and a source of anxiety for many people. But knowing more about how it works can at least limit the guessing games that cause us stress.

In celebration of the 2018 World Cup, Facebook has released a colourful new squad of soccer games and bonus features on its Messenger app. If you've got time to kill in-between World Cup matches, here's how to access them on your phone!

Facebook's annual F8 conference is underway and there have been lots of announcements during Mark Zuckerberg's opening keynote. While the social media giant has been pummelled over recent weeks following revelations of massive abuses of their platform and poor oversight of how personal data is handled within the platform they are pushing on with a number of new initiatives, including one that will potentially raise the hackles of privacy watchdogs.

Dear Lifehacker, I've been getting into the Facebook Messenger game Everwing but have run into a problem. The ability to watch ads - which grants access to free trophies, dragons and magic items - has stopped working. This puts me at a serious disadvantage when competing against friends for the weekly high score. Please help!

Did your friends get really quiet all of a sudden? It's not just you -- Facebook Messenger seems to be experiencing a global outage at the moment.