How to play Facebook Messenger Instant Games on your phone (2017)

Facebook Messenger’s games are now available to users around the world, giving everyone a chance to play. The existence of these games — which Facebook calls Instant Games — is still relatively unknown, though, and even those who know about them may not be sure how to actually access them. That’s where this guide comes in. Fortunately, playing Messenger Instant Games is pretty simple, and it takes less than a minute to get started.

You may have already encountered Messenger games in the form of certain soccer and basketball offerings. While those were fun, Instant Games are better, being far more robust and akin to a game app, only minus the downloading part. Instant Games offer, among other things, ‘rich gameplay features’ and ‘more dynamic and engaging gaming experiences,’ according to Facebook.

Before you start

iOS

Android

Play games without challenging friends

Wrap-up

To play Facebook Messenger Instant Games, you need to first make sure you’re running the latest version of the app, which you likely are. If for one reason or another you’ve disabled app updates, you can manually update Messenger by pulling it up in the Google Play Store and tapping the “Update” button. Wait for that update to finish, then tap “Open” to launch the app.

The new Messenger interface is a tad different than the previous iteration, as you’ve likely noted by now. The interface you see, though, will depend on whether you’re using Android or iOS.

If you’re using iOS, you should see a small gamepad controller icon on the bottom menu of a Messenger chat. Of course, you need to open a chat first to see this icon. Choose carefully, as you’ll then be prompted to send that friend a challenge to beat your score. Once you tap the gamepad icon, you’ll see a simple list of games, which presently includes things like Pac-man, Snake, Bingo and other simple things. There are also some modern popular titles like “Words With Friends.”

If you’re using Google’s mobile OS, things are a bit different (but only a bit). Open Messenger, then open a chat and look for the small circle with a + symbol inside. Tap that and a menu will open with colorful icons for specific things. Tap the ‘Games’ bubble and a game page will open that looks the same as the one shown above.

Playing against your friends is fun, but sometimes you may want to play alone rather than directly challenging someone. Doing this, fortunately, is pretty easy. Open the main Messenger screen (the screen where all your chats are listed) and scroll down to a section called ‘Games.’ You can access the games’ list directly there and launch a game without going through a specific chat.

If you’re not seeing the ‘Games’ section by itself, there’s also an easy ‘workaround’ — just start a Messenger chat with yourself and then launch the game in that chat — you’ll still challenge your friend, but your friend will be you.

Instant Games marks a big turning point for Messenger, which itself has been growing in many ways that are beyond an ordinary messaging app. You can order transportation directly in the app, as one example, and can also send someone money without leaving the service. Now, thanks to this latest expansion, you can also play games with only a few quick taps.

Sources: slashgear

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Facebook's Plan to Own (And Destroy) Your Smartphone with AR

Mark Zuckerberg already controls much of how we regularly interact with other humans, but now he appears to be taking things a step further and change how we view reality itself. At Facebook’s F8 developer conference, Zuckerberg talked about a world where augmented reality merges with the real world, letting us see and interact with objects in ways which feel like something out of a video game. For now, our smartphones will be the avenue through which we experience this combination of the digital and the real until Zuckerberg can come up with something better.

AR developments

Facebook’s interest in augmented reality and its cousin virtual reality is hardly news, as was best shown when Facebook acquired VR headset maker Oculus Rift back in 2014. And the success of Snapchat and the Pokémon Go craze last year already showed the potential of AR.

What is new is Facebook’s ambitions with AR and how it plans to carry it out. Pokémon Go was certainly fascinating technology and a creative use of AR, but it showed AR’s limitations. While it was incredible to see the creatures at churches or restaurants, they were not really part and parcel of those locations. I remember wildly swinging my phone around in frustration trying to actually get a Kingler to show up on my screen.

It was hard enough to get Pokémon attached to churches or buildings. What Facebook wants is to attach augmented reality constructs like jumping sharks or 3-D words to objects like a coffee pot or cereal bowl.

A practical example which Zuckerberg used is a wine bottle. A user could add an information card on a wine bottle with details such as reviews, information about that particular brand, or a link about where to buy said bottle. Another user could look at that same wine bottle through his phone and see that card. Other examples, as Zuckerberg told USA Today, could include playing chess with a friend via an AR app instead of having to buy a chessboard or even watching TV on a blank wall without a TV.

Moving beyond the smartphone

For now, Zuckerberg intends to portray this new augmented reality through smartphones as he called the smartphone camera “the first augmented reality platform.” But that does not mean it will be the final platform, as Zuckerberg has made it clear that the smartphone is simply the best tool he has currently available rather than what he wants.

If one seriously thinks about it, there are problems with using a smartphone as the primary augmented reality platform. Smartphone screens are small and do not have much computational power. You cannot hold a smartphone 24/7. And the wide differences in capabilities between different smartphones and their cameras could give users with weaker phones an inferior AR experience.

So while Zuckerberg wants to essentially turn phones into AR devices for now, his real interest is in wearables. He explicitly stated that “we all want glasses or eventually contact lenses that look and feel normal but let us overlay all kinds of information and digital objects on top of the real world.”

Facebook is not currently looking at building such wearables itself and believes that the technology is at least five years away. It is focusing on improving AR technology first out of the belief that if it can get AR to become a ubiquitous part of phones, it will be able to migrate AR technology to wearables when the right technology is developed.

Can it be done?

Zuckerberg certainly has huge ambitions with AR and wearables. But can it work? Because as happens with any talk of wearables, the ghost of Google Glass lingers over such plans as a warning that advanced technology will not always be instantly snapped up by consumers.

The challenge which Facebook faces with developing AR is that it needs to define what it is actually for. This was Google Glass’s primary mistake, as it clearly aimed at the wrong demographic by aiming for the mass consumer market instead of businesses and industries where it has undergone a mini-renaissance. And a lot of the focus around AR has been on its potential business applications, whether it is laying out virtual plans for a new building or helping to showcase products.

Will Facebook emphasize the business applications of AR, or will it be more entertainment and consumer-focused with virtual chessboards and TVs? And when AR wearables do become realistic technology, Facebook cannot repeat Google Glass’s mistakes of invoking privacy concerns and appearing utterly ridiculous. And even if Facebook avoids those mistakes, consumers may not be interested in putting on a pair of glasses to watch a TV show.

While concerns about customer interest are legitimate, making and improving the technology comes first. AR will almost certainly be revolutionary, and Facebook’s interest in turning every smartphone into an AR hub speaks well to its ambitions and desire to change how we perceive the world. 

Sources: CIO

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Mark Zuckerberg posts Oculus VR film profiling prison inmates changing their lives

Mark Zuckerberg made a big splash last week with Facebook's dive into social VR in the form of Facebook Spaces. But Zuckerberg knows that social media is just part of the VR picture, and on Sunday he demonstrated that by posting a short VR film called Step to the Line. 

Shot using the new Nokia OZO camera, directed by Ricardo Laganaro, and produced in partnership with Defy Ventures, the film is part of the Oculus VR For Good program. The Oculus initiative was launched last year to support VR film projects that encourage positive social change. 

In the case of Step to the Line, the documentary profiles a number of prison inmates who are working to change the direction of their lives through education. 

"One of the most powerful side effects of VR is empathy — the ability to understand other people better when you feel like you're actually with them," wrote Zuckerberg on his personal Facebook page. 

"When I was in Alabama two months ago as part of my 'Year of Travel' challenge, one of the most powerful experiences for me was meeting Anthony Ray Hinton, a man who was exonerated and released after 30 years on death row. There's nothing like meeting someone like Anthony in person, but VR can get you pretty close. It's a reminder of how much work we have to do to guarantee equal justice for all."

We sometimes hear tech insiders debate the strengths and weaknesses of VR versus other technologies, but one thing that is undeniably unique to VR is its ability to serve as a empathy engine. Beyond the games and social networking apps, VR films that plunge us into the middle of the lives of others are one of VR's most powerful applications. 

Step to the Line premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, and Oculus has pledged to increase its financial support of VR for Good filmmakers when the program relaunches this summer in Los Angeles. 

WATCH: Facebook Spaces will give you and your friends a place to hang in VR

Sources: mashable

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