Facebook has quietly rolled out a basketball game that users can play with their friends on Facebook Messenger. Just in time for March Madness, the game can be accessed by sending a basketball emoji to a group thread or in a private message on the Messenger app. Clicking on the sent emoji allows users to begin playing.
A basketball appears in a random location on the screen, and users slide their finger up to shoot the ball in the hoop, scoring a point for each shot they make into the basket. The scores are shared in the chat. The game evolves to get more difficult — once you score 10 points, the target moves faster. TechCrunch reports that the game gets more challenging with every 10 points scored.
The basketball game does not appear to work on all devices. In the newsroom, the basketball emoji did not bring up a game using the iOS Messenger app, but did work when using the Android app using a Nexus 6P, LG G3 and Galaxy 6S Edge+.
This is not the first time the social media platform has released a game for its Messenger app. Last month, Facebook released a secret chess game. Playing the Facebook Chess game requires knowing specific commands to move the chess pieces across the board. LifeHacker reports the commands use Standard Algebraic Notation, which means “P” represents pawn, “N” is for knight, “B” is bishop, “R” is for rook, “K” is king, and “Q” is queen.
To use, simply open up a messenger window with the opponent of your choice and type "@fbchess play" in the window. Once you click send, a chess board pops up, labeled with letter and number coordinates so players can indicate the specific command to move their chess piece. For example, they could type “@fbchess Pd4” to move to that specific box. After each move, the board refreshes.
