Facebook Messenger 5.0 for Windows Phone Brings Instant Photo Sharing and More

The Facebook Messenger (version 5.0) app can be downloaded for free from the Windows Phone Store, where it is currently listed in India.

The new Facebook Messenger update for Windows Phone brings two new features - Groups, which allows users to create group of friends; and the instant photo sharing feature, which offers the option to send a clicked image with just one tap in the app. Notably, the new Groups feature from Facebook Messenger can also be pinned to the device's Start screen for quick access.

The new Facebook Messenger 5.0 app for Windows Phone also brings performance improvements that now allows the app to do more caching of images (like stickers) for better data consumption in the background. The Facebook Messenger v5.0 also adds a new photo gallery which is built into the Messenger and gives access to images on the Windows Phone without leaving the app.

The Android and iOS users got the same version 5.0 update for Facebook Messenger in early May and late April respectively.

The update was announced on Windows Phone's official blog, saying, "An update to Messenger for Windows Phone is rolling out today [Thursday] bringing performance improvements and new features. Taking and sharing a photo is much quicker: you can take and send a photo with just one tap. You don't have to leave the app to take a photo with a separate camera app."

For those unaware, the Facebook Messenger app for Windows Phone 8 arrived in March. The app for Windows Phone 8 importantly did not support a few features available for other platforms, such as voice messaging, and chat heads.

In April, Facebook announced that the monthly audience of Messenger was par with Instagram's announced 200 million active users.