Here's how you can play Facebook Messenger's hidden basketball game

Harish Jonnalagadda/Mar 18, 2016

Just in time for March Madness, Facebook has rolled out an update to Messenger that lets you play a basketball mini-game with your friend directly from the conversation window. To get started, you need to select the basketball emoji, send it to a friend, and then tap on the emoji to load the game. 

You'll get a basketball located at different positions at the bottom of the screen, and you have to swipe up to put the ball in the hoop. The goal is to score consecutive baskets, which gets challenging after you hit 10 points, as that's when the backboard starts moving. 

This isn't the first time Facebook built a game into the messaging platform. Late last year, it introduced a chess game that can be accessed by entering @FBChess in the conversation window. 

What did you guys score? 

Thanks Christopher!