Tumblr announced that it is rolling out messaging, which should go a long way in making the service more social while making users happy about a much-wanted functionality.

Frankly, it’s hard to believe Tumblr hasn’t had this until now, but better late than never.

To be fair, Tumblr has had ways for users to communicate with one another before now, but this is “real, threaded, instant messaging,” as the company puts it.

“This is a big launch, and it’s going to take a few weeks to get it out to everyone (we need to make sure our servers can handle the weight of your discourse),” Tumblr says on its staff blog. “If you don’t have it now, you’ll have it soon.”

Tumblr displays this smiley balloon on you screen when you have a message:

As far as the roll-out goes, you’ll find it in the latest updates of the Android and iOS apps, and on the web, but it might take a while. If you get a message, you’ll obviously know you have the feature. If you have it and send a message to someone else, they’ll have it too.

Image via Tumblr