Facebook today announced updates coming to Facebook Messenger as the app and service celebrates its tenth birthday. The new features include a new game, tighter integration with Facebook Pay, message effects, and more.
For Messenger users in the United States, Messenger now allows you to receive cash gifts directly within the app. This is being enabled thanks to Facebook Pay, and when cash is received, it comes wrapped in a gift with virtual balloons.
In the US, we're introducing a new way to receive cash gifts directly through Messenger. When a friend sends you a cash gift for your birthday, you'll be notified on Messenger and Facebook with their gift message wrapped and accompanied by virtual balloons. Once you confirm your Facebook Pay details, the cash gift will be instantly deposited into your bank account. To send a birthday cash gift, go to the Facebook mobile app and tap the button that appears alongside your friend's birthday posts in your Facebook News Feed or their profile.
Within the app, Messenger users will now be able to conduct polls within group chats, allowing groups to easily vote on specific topics and play "Most Likely to."
In more celebratory features, Messenger is releasing a new "Messenger is 10!" sticker pack to users, offering fun effects such as purple balloons or candles. Announced previously, users can also utilize "Soundmoji" and message effects to spruce up their chats.
Smaller features include an updated way to share contacts with other friends and family, and a sneak peek at "Word Effects." According to Messenger, Word Effects will be rolling out soon and will let users add specific emoji effects to specific words.
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports.
In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you.
Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker.
According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found.
Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
Monday December 1, 2025 2:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
Monday December 8, 2025 9:23 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reportedly indicated that he plans to continue working for the company for the foreseeable future.
"I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," said Srouji, in a memo obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Here is Srouji's full memo, as shared by Bloomberg:I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and...
Monday December 8, 2025 11:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple and Google are teaming up to make it easier for users to switch between iPhone and Android smartphones, according to 9to5Google. There is a new Android Canary build available today that simplifies data transfer between two smartphones, and Apple is going to implement the functionality in an upcoming iOS 26 beta.
Apple already has a Move to iOS app for transferring data from an Android...
Apple today announced that Fitness+ is expanding to 28 new markets on December 15 in the service's largest international rollout since launch, accompanied by new language dubbing and a K-Pop music genre.
Apple Fitness+ will become available in Chile, Hong Kong, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, and additional regions on December 15, with Japan scheduled to follow early next year....
Wednesday December 10, 2025 12:22 pm PST by Juli Clover
The next-generation low-cost iPad will use Apple's A19 chip, according to a report from Macworld. Macworld claims to have seen an "internal Apple code document" with information about the 2026 iPad lineup.
Prior documentation discovered by MacRumors suggested that the iPad 12 would be equipped with an A18 chip, not an A19 chip. The A19 chip was just released this year in the iPhone 17, and...
As someone who is smack in the middle of my 50’s who has seen my peers fully invested in this crap, I am really curious if anyone under 50 really wants all this garbage in their conversations? Is anyone under 50 even still on Facebook?
I remember when I was 30-something and drowning in all those forwarded jokes from every relative and friend over 50 when all I really wanted to know was how they were doing. And Lord help me if I dared to ask (nicely) to be removed from the mailing list for those things. My husband’s aunt didn’t speak to me for ages and one older friend totally dropped me.
I promised myself when it was my turn to be the grumpy old aunt I’d leave everyone the hell alone with the cutesy crap and just stick to business. Yes, I was always a grumpy mom.
