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This is how you play Facebook Messenger's secret basketball minigame

This is how you play Facebook Messenger's secret basketball minigame

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Good news for people with boring friends — Facebook has once again hidden a minigame inside its Messenger app, this time to celebrate college basketball's March Madness tournament. To play, make sure you have the latest version of Facebook Messenger, then simply send a friend the basketball emoji. Once sent, press the ball, and be transported away from your conversation to a wonderful world where there's no baby photos, relationship drama, or Candy Crush invites — just a white screen, a basketball, and a hoop.

Flick up on your phone to launch said basketball into the hoop. Sink the rock and you'll be rewarded with happy emoji — you know, the raised hands, the thumbs up, the tensed bicep, all the classics — but toss an airball and you're stuck with the sad options. Hit more than 10 baskets in a row and the backboard starts moving on its own, as if controlled by a vengeful basketball ghost. Something may happen if you get any more than ten, but according to my research, that's impossible*.

*It's not impossible, I'm just bad at it.