Ahead of March Madness, Facebook's Messenger app has a little surprise for anyone who has time to kill while waiting for replies - a secret basketball game.
If you haven't read the notes for the latest Messenger update, you won't know that you can score some baskets through the app. To play, make sure your app is up to date, send a basketball emoji to someone, then tap it to bring up a fun basketball game.
It's not the most complicated game – just move the ball towards the hoop to get a point and try to get the highest score. Don't worry about the speed of your movement, as the ball automatically moves at a certain height, so all you need to do is focus on the right direction. For such a simple game, it's quite addictive.
If you send a basketball emoji in a group chat, Messenger will tell you what other players' high scores are and how much you need to beat the highest score.
Every basket you win will display an encouraging emoticon, and when you miss, you'll see a sad one. Once you reach 10 points, the difficulty increases – the hoop starts moving across your phone's entire screen.
Facebook you want to play chess with friends on Facebook, type “@fbchess play” in chat and a chessboard will appear.
Chess is still on Facebook after a month, so I hope the basketball game stays that way. So far, my record is 13, but according to our French friends, the hoop starts moving faster after you score 20 baskets, so it can get harder and harder after each multiple of 10. Have fun!
