Facebook celebrates March Madness with a basketball game in its Messenger app
As noted by Phone Arena, the latest version of Facebook Messenger for iOS and Android includes a simple, hidden basketball game that lets you shoot baskets from the comfort of your own smartphone. It’ll count how many shots you make in a row, and it might just distract you out of writing the news story you were supposed to write.
Not that I would know anything about that. Ahem.
Here’s how to get to it: Start by upgrading to the latest version of Facebook Messenger if you haven’t already. Go to a conversation, then send a basketball emoji to the other person. Tap the basketball, and a basketball game will grace your screen. Tap Back at any time to return to what you were doing.
Is it kind of silly You bet, but it makes for a briefly amusing diversion. It also isn’t the first time Facebook has hidden this sort of Easter Egg into the app: Phone Arena reported last month on the existence of a similar chess game baked into Messenger. The company may also have bigger plans for gaming in Messenger: Back in May, Facebook was reportedly talking to game developers about integrating games into Messenger.