Brain Break: How to Find and Play the Basketball Game Hidden in Facebook MessengerTGIF, ballers. This sporty brain-drain's a slam dunk when it comes to wasting time.

ByKim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Related:How to Create a Facebook Messenger Chatbot For Free Without Coding

Heya, player. How about a quick pickup game of basketball at your desk? C'mon, it's Friday. It's not like you'rereallyworking anyway.

Big Brother Facebook knows all, and it knows this, too. Maybe that's why the social giant tucked a fun little basketball game into its mobile Messenger app late yesterday.

Layup for layup, this baby's a slam dunk when it comes to wasting time. Predictably, the emoji-loaded hidden gem is a mindless brain-drain minigame (but we're so not above playing it). Plus, it arrives just in time to feed March Madness mania.

Facebook screengrab
Image Credit: Lindsay Friedman

Finders keepers
To get in on the FB b-ball action, double-check that you have the latest version of the mobile version of Facebook Messenger. Then send one of your Facebook Messenger friends a basketball emoji from the Messenger conversation window. (Crucial tip: Select the basketball emoji from your phone's native keyboard.) Next, tap on the basketball emoji to initiate the game and you're good to go.



Let's play
To start playing, swipe up on the basketball at the bottom of the screen and try to put it in the hoop. Your goal: to score as much as possible, obviously. Watch out for that moving backboard -- and, checkmate, prepare to accomplish nothing but this junk the rest of the day.

记得上次Facebook塞一个有趣的Easter egg such as this into mobile Messenger? The simple chess game debuted on the sly late last year. To give it a spin, type @FBChess into your chat. Good luck, and happy Friday, slackers.
Wavy Line
Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist atLos Angeles CityBeat,a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to theLos Angeles Times. She has also written forGovernment Technologymagazine,LA Yogamagazine, theLowell Sunnewspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at@Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebookhere.

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