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Dropbox lands file sharing deal with Facebook Messenger

Messenger users can now share photos, videos, and other Dropbox files directly on Facebook's Messenger platform during a chat.
Written by Natalie Gagliordi, Contributor
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Dropbox has launched a new feature that lets users share photos, videos, and other files directly on Facebook's Messenger platform during a chat. At launch the feature is available for both Messenger's iOS and Android apps.

The integration marks a first for Messenger, as so far Dropbox is the only file sharing service to partner with the social communications platform.

"We want people to communicate just the way they want to on Messenger, with everyone they care about," said Stan Chudnovsky, Facebook's head of product for Messenger. "Giving our users the ability to share their Dropbox videos and images in Messenger threads with just a few taps will help them bring more style and personality to those conversations."

To access the the feature during a conversation, tap the "more" button and select Dropbox from the list of available sources. From there, files can be selected and shared without clicking away from the Messenger app.

Visual files such as videos, images and animated GIFs are viewable right from the chat stream, but non-visual files such as documents will be directed into the Dropbox mobile app. That said, users will need to download the Dropbox app for the integration to function properly.

The announcement comes just ahead of Facebook's F8 developer conference kicking off in San Francisco. It's widely expected that the social networking giant will reveal the next generation of Messenger. The next phase of the platform will likely focus on chatbot support, which can be marketed to business users for a bevy of customer service use cases.

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