If you use Facebook Messenger , there's a very interesting feature that most people don't know about. You can give your contacts nicknames in your conversations. This can help you easily identify them among the many similar names you have saved, and it can also be a fun way to joke around when you're chatting with them. So, we'll explain, step by step and with images, how you can change your contacts' nicknames in Messenger.
Steps to follow to change the nickname in Messenger
Facebook Messenger allows us to send and receive text messages, share images, files, etc. Besides that, it is yet another option for making voice and video calls. But when you have a lot of contacts in Messenger, and that happens very often, it's a bit confusing. Above all, because most of your friends have the habit of calling themselves the same and you have sent José MartÃn what was for José MartÃnez.
To address this, and for quite some time now, the Messenger app has allowed you to assign a custom nickname or alias to your contacts . However, it's a feature that's rarely used or, frankly, unknown.
Do not worry, we will explain step by step how to put that nickname.
Step 1. Download Facebook Messenger on your mobile if you don't have it
Please note that this feature is only available for the iOS or Android app ; you won't be able to change it in the web version of Messenger . So, if you haven't downloaded it to your mobile device yet, do so now from the Play Store or the Apple App Store.
Step 2: Select the contact from the Messenger
We launch the application and, from the list of contacts that appears on the screen, we find and select the one whose nickname we want to change . That is, what appears at the top of the chats we have with him.
For that, we can click on the first chat tab at the top, choosing the conversation that we have with the contact and clicking on it to enter. We can also choose the contact tab that has the little person icon and search for it by her name among all the ones we have on Facebook.
Step 3: Show profile information
Once we are in the conversation with our contact, if you look, on the right side we will see an icon with the information symbol which consists of a white letter i inside a blue circle.
We clicked there.
That takes us to a screen with all the contact information. There, we will see the options to make an audio or video call, view the profile, silence our contact, create groups, etc.
Well, on the main part of the screen we see the option we want, which is called nicknames.
We clicked on it.
Step 4: Enter the new nickname of our contact
You'll see that this takes us to a new screen with our profile and the chosen contact's photo, as well as the words "Set nickname" next to both. We can choose a nickname ourselves, but in this case, we want to match the contact, so we tap on them.
This will bring up a floating box that says our contact will only see this in the conversation. We then type in the nickname we want to use to identify that contact in chats from now on.
Click on "Save".
Now, if we go to the chat screen with this contact, we'll see that the contact's nickname appears at the top instead of their name. Similarly, the chat history also shows that we've changed their nickname.
As you'll see, that means the other person will always see what you do , so don't use nicknames you don't want the other person to know.
Finally, keep in mind that this will only change the nickname within the conversation you're having with her and nowhere else. For example, if you go to the contacts tab, you'll still see that she'll appear with the name she chose on Facebook.
And what use is it that we can also change our nickname in the Messenger?
Aside from making a joke or being called whatever we want, you've probably already figured out that the other person can also change your nickname . So, if you don't like it, you can change it for the conversation and start wasting a huge amount of time playing at changing nicknames all the time.
Can I change the nickname of my contacts in the Facebook Messenger Lite application?
Yes, you can do everything we're showing you in both the regular Facebook Messenger app and its variant, Messenger Lite.
In fact, if you have an Android and don't use Facebook Messenger much , we recommend this second version (if you have an iPhone, too bad, Facebook killed Messenger Lite for iOS and it doesn't look like it's coming back).
Furthermore, the screenshots we've shown you of the instructions were taken using the Android version of Messenger Lite . What you'll see there is practically identical to the main app; it simply adds more options to your contacts' profiles, such as creating a secret chat.
This version of the app is designed for less powerful phones or 2G networks and areas with poor coverage. It's true you miss out on some features, like encrypted communications with secret chats , but I suppose that, at this point, nobody uses Facebook and its apps when they want to communicate privately.
The truth is that Messenger Lite works much better and faster on any phone. In addition, it's considerably lighter (we're talking about over 200 MB for the main app right after installation, compared to around 25 MB for the Lite version ). It's also somewhat less invasive with privacy, which is always a good thing when it comes to Facebook.
As you can see, the procedure is straightforward, and now you know, step by step, how to change the nickname of your contacts in Messenger conversations.