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Facebook’s Chris Cox Talks About Expanding Messaging

Will GIFs come to Messenger?

Asa Mathat

Facebook’s Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said the social network is thinking about expanding mobile messaging beyond just friends.

In conversation with Wall Street Journal Technology Editor Jonathan Krim, Cox discussed how Facebook could add more fun, entertaining ways its billion-plus users could communicate via Messenger.

“The animated GIF thing — that’s interesting,” Cox said, referring to the popular animated video snippets exchanged on the Web. “The business stuff is also really neat.”

Cox said Facebook is contemplating how to add business communications into its daily interactions. Instead of calling a restaurant to say you’re running late for a scheduled reservation, Cox said you might be able to communicate in the same way you might tell a friend you’re stuck in traffic — via text.

“We’re after that,” said Cox in remarks Tuesday at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJDLive conference at The Montage in Laguna Beach, Calif.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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