Facebook Testing Chat Assist for Messenger; Adds New Group Chat Polls Feature

Facebook's Messenger app will soon make sure you remember to pay back your friend, even though you would rather forget, with a feature called Chat Assist. The company has separately launched the group chat polls feature in the US.

The company is testing the Chat Assist feature that will use machine learning to recognises words and prompt an action in a chat. So, for example, if your friend reminds you to pay a particular amount of money back, Chat Assist will prompt a payment link asking if you want to pay the amount you owe. Facebook says the feature is automated and optional.

Chat Assists follows the recent launch of Facebook Messenger's online payment system. Users will be able to pay the amount they owe directly through Messenger. The payment service was launched so that business could sell their products and services directly to customers through Messenger.

Meanwhile, Facebook Messenger will get group chat polls starting Friday. The feature only works for group chats and works like any other poll. You can start a poll by tapping the Polls icon in the composer. You can then type a question like 'where to eat' and provide options for your group to vote on. It's a clean, hassle-free way to know what people want. The feature is currently only available in the US for Android and iOS users.