Facebook integrates reactions and @mentions into Messenger

After launching Messenger Day, the social media giant, Facebook is rolling out Reactions and Mentions for its Messenger platform.

In a blog post, Facebook announced that the two new features are aimed to improve group conversations. "Today, we’re introducing two new features that improve group conversations to make them more fun and useful," the company said.

The Messenger Reactions feature allows you to react to a post with a particular emoji, which we have been using on the newsfeed since almost a year. Though this feature lets you react to an individual message, it is most suitable for group chats, where they’ll help organise the discussion in a meaningful way.

In the case of group messaging, users will be able to view how many people reacted to a particular message in the lower corner of the message. Tapping on the emojis will show you a summary of how many members reacted in which way. When someone reacts to your messages, you'll see a small animation. You can also opt for notifications on your screen when someone reacts to a message of yours.

The company last month said it recorded 300 billion "Reactions" on posts since launch.

The other new feature, Mentions, will help you draw the attention of a particular person or persons in a group which you can now tag by typing "@" symbol followed by their name with your message. Just like Facebook's tagging feature, those tagged will get notified that they've been mentioned.

The new features will also be available for Work Chat on Workplace.

The company has already started rolling out the features, and it will be available globally in the coming days.