Facebook built a basketball game directly into Messenger - here's how to play

The game is to celebrate March Madness, a tournament involving numerous US college basketball teams.

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HAPPY MARCH MADNESS!

To celebrate the basketball fever, Facebook built a fun little game into its chat app.

Although this isn’t the first game that Facebook has released natively on Messenger, it’s much easier to access than the secret chess game that entails a rather clunky gameplay process.

Here’s how to play:

First, update your Messenger app. Then all you need is someone in a chat or group conversation to send the basketball emoji.

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Tap it, and you’ll start playing. You’ll get cheered on when you score, but if you miss, you start over.

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Each players’ score will be shown in the chat and Facebook keeps track of who the current high-scorer is.

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Messenger will likely be one of the hottest topics at Facebook’s developers conference in April.

Since announcing the Messenger platform last year, the company has built in native ways to send GIFs, talk to brands, and order an Uber. Maybe even more games like this will be up next.

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- Jillian D’Onfro

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