Facebook brings threaded replies to its Messenger app

Facebook is altering a few things about its Messenger app. Users will now be able to track who's chatting to who in a busy chat. The social media platform is adding a thread feature for Messenger that allows users to reply to specific messages.

If you want to ask a question, you won't have to scroll through the chat to see if someone answered it. You only have to long-press on a message to write a response. The feature has been rolled out for all the users across the globe.

While the new feature is only added for Messenger, it could be significant for Facebook at large. The social media goliath is reportedly working on unifying its messaging apps, making it easier to add one feature to all the apps simultaneously. It wouldn't be surprising if the thread messaging comes to Instagram and WhatsApp.

Recently, a Facebook bug was found that allowed websites to gain user data due to a security flaw regarding cross-site frame leakage (CSFL). Now, the same team has discovered a now-fixed vulnerability that allowed websites to expose your personal chats through Facebook Messenger.

Imperva security researcher Ron Masas explained in a blog post how a CSFL attack could use the properties of iFrame elements and exploit an application. Running the same process through individual Messenger contacts would show either of the two states - full or empty. This determines whether a user has ever messaged that particular contact or not.