Facebook wants you to play games from within its Messenger app

Western apps may dominate the messaging market, but Asian messaging apps are far more diverse and useful than their Western counterparts. Messaging apps from Asia, such as Line or WeChat, are almost like the Swiss army knives of apps, practically a separate operating system from within another operating system, jam packed with features and sub-apps. This is something that Facebook has been trying to do with Messenger, first with stickers, and now with games that work from within the app itself.  

Facebook announced the Facebook Messenger Platform in March, which allows developers to create apps that can be used inside the Facebook Messenger client. Currently, most of the apps allow you to send GIFs, memes and other artistic creations, but the social network wants to make the experience a lot more fun and, potentially, more lucrative. According to The Information, Facebook is currently courting developers to create games that work entirely within the Messenger application. You can see how this might be compelling for chat, where one might be able to not only message with a friend, but also play a quick game of billiards. “Discussions” with developers were confirmed by Facebook Messenger Platform lead Ilya Sukhar, The Information said, though the company didn’t offer any additional details. The addition of games could be more valuable to Facebook than simply offering new features to end users. With the increasing popularity of free-to-play games with in-game payment systems, the new features could offer a major new revenue source to Facebook.