In a new test feature spotted by users, Facebook Messenger is experimenting with adding live sports updates to people who are already chatting about the subject. The first test of Facebook Messenger’s new feature appears to have been triggered by users who were messaging back and forth about the World Series that wrapped up on November 1st.
During a message exchange, Facebook sent their own un-solicited message, offering both users the opportunity to subscribe to World Series updates. After the users subscribed to the live sports updates, Facebook Messenger sent news, scores, and highlights to the conversation.
The new live sport update feature is an interesting experiment for Facebook. They are trying to tap into Twitter’s foothold on live update feeds and comments from users. While this type of media exchange appears to be exactly what Twitter is based on, it will be interesting to see how Twitter responds if the updates continue to evolve. According to We Are Social Media, it is unclear if Facebook is testing this feature for other events besides the World Series and if the test included international users.
While there is certainly an opportunity for Facebook Messenger to expand its offerings and usage, one can still be skeptical that the live update feature will trump Twitter any time soon. The feature will certainly take time to gain traction against the efficiency of tweeting and the ease of incorporating multiple users to a discussion using hashtags. Furthermore, it will be interesting to see how Facebook will be able to react to non-major sporting events.
For Facebook Messenger, it will be easier to provide feeds to major sporting events such as the World Series, Super Bowl, and NBA Finals. However, Twitter allows its users to discuss many smaller events including individual regular season games and news stories that come up without notice. It will be interesting to see if developing news stories will get their own update feeds when users are discussing them in Facebook Messenger.
Facebook certainly has the resources to push new ideas into their social media giant, however it will be difficult to compete against Twitter, which is built upon quick news sharing and discussion. Facebook Messenger has potential, but it still has a long way to go.