Facebook Launches Multiplayer AR Games In Messenger Video Chat

Facebook is making connecting with friends in Messenger video chat a lot more fun and competitive with multiplayer video chat AR games. 

When meeting up IRL just won’t cut it – sometimes because of the distance, other times because of laziness – Messenger video chat helps us connect with each other in real time, wherever we are. And now, Facebook is giving people another reason to connect on video chat: the ability to challenge each other over multiplayer AR games.

Multiplayer AR games are starting to roll out today on Messenger, letting you play two games (for the time being) against six people at once. The first is “Don’t Smile”, and the object of the game is to see who can hold a serious face the longest. The other, is “Asteroids Attack,” during which players navigate their spaceship with their nose.

https://www.facebook.com/messenger/videos/2086147668171569/

Facebook says it is planning to roll out more games in the future – like one that allows users to pass a beach ball back and forth, called “Beach Bump” or a matching cat game called “Kitten Kraze”. These games were made possible by AR Studio, Facebook’s tool allowing people to create AR content for Messenger.

If you want to try any of these games, make sure you have the latest version of Messenger, open an existing conversation or find the person or group of people you’d like to chat with and tap the video icon on the upper right corner of the screen. After that, tap on the star button and select one of the AR games. The other person or people in the conversation will get a notification to start playing.

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