We knew changes were incoming for Facebook Messenger after last month's F8 Developer Conference, during which the focus was largely on better discovery of bots and "Chat Extensions" to add those bots into group conversations. Now it seems Facebook is testing new UI changes, including top-level tabs and a games section in the bottom nav bar.

The first noticeable difference is that tabs have been added below the search bar. Instead of having a line of "Active Now" contacts amongst your messages, both sections have been split into distinct tabs. The third of these top-level tabs is for groups, which have been moved from the bottom nav bar. These changes seem to make sense, with all of your conversations and online contacts in the tab navigation. As the most used options these are now rightly front and center.

Left: messages tab. Center: groups tab. Right: Instant Games section.

Taking the place of groups in the bottom nav bar is a new dedicated games section. Here you'll find a selection of Instant Games that you can play with your friends. The settings button has been moved one place to the left to allow the games button to occupy the bottom right corner. This kind of reordering is likely to draw more attention to the new games section, in the hope that you'll give in to intrigue and tap on the icon.

It seems as though Facebook has flipped a server-side switch enabling these changes for a handful of users, so if you can't see it yet your best bet is to give the beta channel a go. You can download the app using the Play Store link below or manually from APKMirror.

Thanks: Gurkanwal Singh, Kavan Trivedi, Kapil, Elias