Top 15 Facebook Messenger Story Tips and Tricks

Ephemeral stories have taken over the world. Whether it’s Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook or Facebook Messenger, stories have made their mark everywhere. This is because the stories are compelling, addictive, and incredibly easy to create.

Messenger stories made their debut as Messenger Day and were later renamed to stories to remove any ambiguity between Facebook and Messenger stories. Since then, Facebook supports the natural cross-posting of stories between Facebook and Messenger. However, that doesn’t mean you get the same features.

Facebook and Messenger stories differ in many ways. We have already covered Facebook stories tips and tricks. So here we will tell you how to use Facebook Messenger stories like a pro with these tips and tricks.

Let us begin.

1. Pause History

Stories on all platforms play like a slideshow, automatically appearing one after another. Sometimes the story is so good that we want to enjoy it with our heart and soul. In such cases, you can pause a story. To do so, touch and hold the screen to pause the story.

2. Change the story

To quickly jump to the next story from the same person, tap on the right side of the story and to go back, tap on the left side. To switch the story entirely to the next person, swipe left on the screen. And to see the previous person’s story, swipe right. Thanks to these gestures, you don’t have to torture yourself to see all the stories.

3. Switch cameras quickly

Touching the camera icon to switch between front and rear is sometimes inconvenient. Alternatively, you can switch between cameras by simply double tapping on the screen; works in photo and video mode.

4. Zoom while recording

Another thing that is problematic when creating a story is the zoom feature on videos. While you can use the pinch-to-zoom gesture, you have to use two fingers for that. To make it easier, you can hold and slide the record button up and down while recording to zoom in and out.

5. Change font

Unlike Instagram and WhatsApp which allow you to change the font, the feature is currently missing from Messenger stories. However, if you want to change the font, there are two ways to do it.

Method 1

Open the image in Facebook story and tap on the Aa icon at the top and then write the text. Then touch the font style name to switch between various fonts.

Note:

Method 2

You can use websites like Cool Symbol and Lingojam to generate fancy font styles. Write the text on these sites, copy the generated text into unique fonts, and paste it into a Messenger story.

6. Change the text background

To do so, first tap the Aa icon in a Messenger story. Then tap the A icon repeatedly to change the transparency. Choose a color from the color palette at the bottom.

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7. Change the size of the pen

In addition to changing the size of the font, you can also adjust its thickness by changing the size of the pen. For that, tap on the doodle icon and select a pencil color from the colors present at the bottom.

Then, to change the size of the pen, you have to repeatedly tap on the chosen color. You will notice that a white border around the color changes depending on the size of the pen. Once you have your desired pen size, draw on the image.

8. Draw with emojis

Instead of drawing with colored pens, you can enhance images by drawing with emojis on your images. To do so, first, tap on the doodle icon followed by the emoji icon. Then choose the emoji of your choice from the list at the bottom and start drawing on the image.

9. Flip stickers

Sure, you can rotate and increase the size of the label, but sometimes you can create a fun effect by flipping the labels. Double-tap the sticker to flip it after adding it to your story.

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10. Crop Image

What I like about Messenger stories is that you can easily rotate and crop images, both old and new.

After adding a photo to your story, tap the crop icon and adjust the border to the size you want. Interestingly, you can even select a predefined size from the available options. Just tap on the size icon on the crop screen.

11. Add a fancy border

Apart from adding face filters, you can also add fancy borders to personalize your stories. Swipe left or right on the image once you’ve captured it or chosen one from your gallery. Alternatively, tap on the emoji icon followed by the Filters option.

12. Add face filters to old images

For new photos, face filters are readily available on the camera screen. But what if you want to add a filter to an old image, like the picture from your childhood? You can do it in Messenger stories.

To do this, create a story from an old photo. Then on the editing screen, you will get a new effect icon if the app detects a face in the image. Tap it and select a filter from the available options. You can post it to your story or save it to your device by tapping the save icon.

13. Color block story

In Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook stories, you can keep any color in the color palette to fill the screen. It works differently for Messenger stories.

In a Messenger story, tap the color palette icon in the camera view. Then on the next screen, use the color icon at the bottom to toggle between various colors. You can then use the usual story tools like pen, text, and stickers to personalize your story.

14. Mute and unmute history

Facebook Messenger is not just limited to your Facebook friends. Anyone on Facebook can send you a message. Most of these would end up in the Message Requests folder. But if you’ve interacted with someone outside of your friends list or plan to, their stories will show up in your stories list in Messenger.

To avoid seeing these stories, you would normally avoid tapping on your story icon. However, those stories are still part of the slideshow when you tap on any story before the one you want to avoid. what do you do then? Do not worry. Use the mute or hide option to avoid such stories. Once you do, these stories will not appear in the stories tray or slideshow. Say goodbye to unwanted views.

To mute or hide a story, tap and hold the profile picture icon with a live story. Select Hide Story from the menu. Alternatively, open the story you want to mute and tap on the three-dot icon in the top right corner. Select Mute Story.

Note:

To unmute or unmute stories, tap your profile picture icon on the Messenger home screen.

Then tap on Story followed by Stories you’ve muted. Here remove the people whose stories you want to see.

15. Privacy Settings

Muting the stories saves your eyes from unnecessary agony. But there’s one more problem: Your Messenger connections can also see your stories, depending on your privacy settings.

To restrict your stories to only Facebook friends or custom people, you need to change it in your privacy settings. To do so, tap the profile picture icon on the Messenger home screen.

Then tap on History and set the privacy as per your choice.

Bring out your inner artist

Messenger stories can be used as mini photo editors. While they lack powerful features available in photo editing apps, that doesn’t mean you can’t create cool graphics for social media. Also, you can’t highlight because it’s only possible through the Facebook app.

As you have seen, Messenger stories are packed with great features. After all, it depends on how you use these creative tools to create different stories. So let that hidden artist experiment with stories that fade after twenty-four hours and stay in the archives.

Next up: Having trouble with Facebook Messenger or has it gotten a bit overwhelming? Do not worry. Check out our 13 great Facebook Messenger tips and tricks for Android.

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