LaTeX for Messenger wót Ben Bavar

With the help of the TeX coding language, you can typeset math. That is, you can write equations and other kinds of mathematical formulas with the standard formatting and fonts used in academic and technical publications (e.g., textbooks). But Facebook Messenger has no built-in support for TeX code.

If you know how to code in TeX, and you want to use those skills to talk math with your friends in Facebook Messenger, this extension allows you to do so. While composing a message at facebook.com, write TeX commands between $$ and $$, or \[ and \], to display mathematical formulas centered on their own line. Enclose your code in $ ... $ or \( ... \) instead if you want to include a little bit of math in a paragraph. Type \$ or \\ to include a plain dollar sign or backslash in your message. Otherwise, the characters $ and \ are interpreted as code.

The standardized math symbols show up only after your chat bubble finishes sending. And if someone sends you a message containing valid TeX code, you'll see typeset symbols in that chat bubble as well. Bear in mind that the mathematical notation will appear only on the screens of those using this extension. Send a message containing TeX code to anyone else, and all they'll see is the code, not typeset formulas.

If you think some existing feature of the extension needs work, or you would like to see a feature added, you are more than welcome to create an issue or pull request on the GitHub page: https://github.com/brbavar/katex-for-messenger-web