Patent published on June 1, 2017

Facebook Messenger new feature will decipher your emotions to automatically format text

I think you will agree that formatting of text can help grasp what someone else has to say way better than an unformatted text.

That’s why now Facebook wants to add another interesting feature in its Messenger app that will make it emotionally intelligent – to some extent.

A patent by Facebook reveals formatting text messages according to the emotional state of a user. The Facebook Messenger will automatically format your texts.

The algorithms working at backend will check how you prefer to respond to a text. Here your typing speed will help. If you reply to a message by typing faster than normal, it must be an urgent conversation while a slow typing speed suggests otherwise.

Here spacing will be adjusted to convey the state of user at another side. Have a look at the image below where I’ll be over after work is written in a manner to suggest Joe that his/her friend has written the response in a calm state.

messenger patent image

While in the another image where it’s written come over ASAP!, a faster typing speed and an emotion of being irritated is conveyed.

You are present at what location at what time will be another criteria Messenger will take into account for formatting texts automatically.

Consider the below image. Here a user writes “Can you give me a ride home?”, from a club. The Messenger will apply a font to the text to let Joe know with a font which shows that sender is currently tired.

patent image of messenger

Now you may think that not everyone who is in a club is sort of tired. Yup, you’re right. Here Messenger will consider the time when someone is sending a text.

Obviously if someone is asking someone to pick him/her up at 3 of the morning, that someone must be tired or must be in a state to not book a ride or come over on his/her own.

Messenger will try to decipher how you are feeling by measuring the pressure your fingers put on your device screen.

Your fingers putting higher pressure than normal will indicate you being angry or is getting excited while typing. In this case, whatever you type will have a bigger font size.

patent image of facebook messenger

Normal pressure inputs will signify your being calm hence the font size will be like your state – normal.

I wasn’t able to get what inventor of the patent wanted to convey but here it is: if someone writes, “You are so creepy” and changes the word creepy to funny before sending the text. Messenger will consider this as sender trying to be sarcastic.

Messenger app image

It will scratch out the word creepy so that the recipient knows that this is a sarcastic text. But why? I think this will kill the fun. What do you think?

Did you know? : How Facebook friend suggestion algorithm works?

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