I’m a bit confused about Messenger why is exists alongside Hangouts, but ’s latest update for it at least makes it more useful.

Messenger version 1.4 now offers sticker packs location sharing. You can download up to three sticker packs, some of which are animated. cations are shared in a style similar to Hangouts; the recipient receives a small screenshot of a map with your coordinates as an image file, along with a quick launch link to Maps.

has also added faster scrolling to the app, so if you’ve archived months months of conversation, you can grab the scroll bar jump ahead of all the noise to the more recent thread.

The app has started rolling out to Android phones everywhere, though it doesn’t appear to have been updated in the ay Store just yet.

y this matters: I still have no idea why Messenger exists. At first I thought it was an SMS alternative for low-end Android phones, for which the beefier Hangouts app would be slow. But as it grows introduces new features to it, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what its deal is.

If you use Hangouts with SMS integration, you don’t really need this particular app. But if you’d rather not integrate your IMs with your text messaging conversations, at least there’s another -provided option available. I hope that someday we’ll underst the real reason that Messenger exists.

At least the stickers it’s bundled in are absolutely adorable.