Messenger has added a new display of multiple photos in-stream, which is pretty much the same as its Shared Album option, but will now be available in all chats.
As you can see in the video, now, when you upload multiple photos to the chat, they’ll appear as stacked thumbnails in-stream. When tapped, chat participants will be shown a display of all the images, and they’ll be able to expand them, as well as like and comment, all from that display.
Which, as noted, is the same format that Messenger added for Shared Albums in group chats in April this year.
The main addition in that instance was the capacity for all group chat members to add images to the shared collection. But now, Meta’s expanding the same display format to all multi-image displays, which suggests that users have adapted well to this format within group chats, and Meta now sees more value in this display in a broader context.
It’s a fairly intuitive update, which will make it easier to engage with images in the chat. It’ll also make Messenger’s image displays more universal within each element, which could help to maximize interaction.
And with more social interaction switching to messaging apps, as opposed to social platforms, it makes sense for Meta to continue to refine its options on this front, in order to encourage Messenger usage.
It’s a simple tweak, which, as noted, pretty much replicates an existing function, but it’s a helpful one, which will be beneficial for many users.
The new image update is being rolled out from this week in the latest version of the app.
