Facebook adds Chat Heads for video and Dropbox integration to Messenger

Facebook is adding Dropbox integration and Chat Heads for video calling to its Messenger chat application. The social network has announced this. Messenger is likely to play a big part in Facebook’s keynote address at its developer event Tuesday night.

For example, the integration with Dropbox allows photos and videos stored in Dropbox to appear directly in the chat without Facebook hosting them. In addition, Dropbox is now directly among the options if users want to share files.

With Chat Heads in video calling it is possible to have a video call and minimize the screen to a small circle, as has been possible with chat conversations for several years now. Then the user can do something else while video calling. On iOS users have to stay in the app, on Android it is possible to open other apps because it allows floating windows.

The features will be available to Messenger users on iOS and Android in the coming days. Facebook Messenger has 900 million monthly users worldwide. WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook, has over a billion active users.

Facebook will kick off its F8 developer conference on Tuesday. It will presumably make more announcements about features in Messenger.