Facebook Messenger gets a makeover for improved navigation

In a bid to make the Messenger experience more organised and easy, Facebook has given its messaging platform a makeover.

The update introduces new tabs to the top of Messenger’s main screen for moving between your messages, active contacts, and groups. "By tapping or swiping to these tabs, you can quickly navigate to where you need to go and get messaging faster," Facebook said in a ">blog post.

By giving active users their own dedicated section, the platform wants you to start more conversations through the app, as it’s easier to see who’s online in one long, vertically scrollable list, as opposed the horizontal scrollbar before.

The bottom bar is also getting a rejig. It now has tabs for Home, Calls, the in-app Camera, and People and Games. When there's something new to check out in one of these tabs, Facebook will put a red dot to let you know there’s activity.  This will be a useful guide to helping you find those things you missed since you last logged on.

"These small changes are designed to make Messenger simpler for you – to help you get to your contacts quickly, jump into your conversations where you left off, start new chats, and stay up to date," Facebook wrote.

Facebook said it plans to roll out these changes worldwide on iOS and Android starting this week.