Towards the end of 2017, Facebook introduced a new chat app aimed at kids called Messenger Kids. The new parent-approved app was essentially a kid-friendly version of its popular Messenger app which was designed to help children safely message friends and family members. The service was initially launched in the US and it soon made its way to Canada. Now, over two years since its launch, Facebook is finally rolling out Messenger Kids in more countries.
According to a recent blog post from the company, Messenger Kids will now be available on both iOS and Android in over 70 more countries, including India, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, and more. Along with expanding the service to more countries, Facebook has also introduced a couple of new features in Messenger Kids that will help parents connect kids with their friends. Here are all the new changes included in the latest update for Messenger Kids:
Supervised Friending
When Messenger Kids was launched initially, it only allowed parents to invite and approve contacts for their child. With the new Supervised Friending feature, parents will get the option to allow their kids to accept, reject, add or remove contacts, while still maintaining the ability to override new contact approvals from the Parent Dashboard.
As an added security measure, parents will be notified whenever their kids take any friending action through the app and can override the action instantly. The new feature is already rolling out to Messenger Kids in the US and will gradually roll out to other regions in the near future.
Connecting Kids Through Groups
Messenger Kids will now also allow children to join parent-approved groups that are supervised by a trusted adult. These approved adults will also be able to connect other kids to the group whose parents have also granted the same approval.
The new groups feature is also rolling out to users in the US and will gradually be rolled out to other regions. In case you're a teacher, coach, or any other leader who'd like to make use of this new feature, you can access it by following this link.
Public Profiles for Kids
Messenger Kids is also making it easier for kids to find and connect with more friends on the platform by giving parents in the US, Canada, and Latin America the option to make their kid's name and profile photo visible.
However, the public profile will only be visible to friends of their kid's contacts and their parents, kids of the parent's Facebook friends, and kids of people parents invite to download the Messenger Kids app. The feature is already live in the US, Canada, and Latin America, and will roll out to other regions in the coming weeks.
Source: Facebook Newsroom