On the heels of the ability to remove sent messages, and the coveted dark mode, Facebook is now adding in the ability to quote and reply to specific messages within a conversation in Facebook Messenger.
As reported by VentureBeat, you can now hold down on an individual message in a conversation to "quote" the message. This then allows you to either add a reaction to the message, or reply to it with a new "reply" button. Replying to the message attaches a quoted version of the original message to your reply field, adding in more context to the reply. This feature comes in handy in group chats that move too fast, as the related context makes it easier to follow along the conversation even amidst the noise. It isn't a completely threaded view of the conversation, but is the same reply functionality as we currently see in WhatsApp.
This change comes after Facebook announced its intentions to unify the messaging infrastructure of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, which referred majorly to encryption as the main feature that will be making its way across all platforms. Facebook then went to expand upon this idea, outlining "interoperability across its platforms" as one of its many goals. This feature parity appears to be a step towards achieving interoperability.