One day in the not-so-distant future, you will be able to text with impunity while watching a theatrical movie.

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta has developed a second-screen experience it is calling Movie Mate, and plans to unleash this upon the world during a special screening of Blumhouse’s M3GAN (2022) in select theaters.

The screening, scheduled for April 30th, kicks off the three-week Halfway to Halloween Blumhouse film fest that includes screenings of Annabelle on May 7th and Ma (2019) on May 14th.

During the screening of M3GAN, those in the audience will be encouraged DM the star herself at her Instagram account, allowing them access to never-before-seen content, trivia, and behind the scenes info on the film in real time.

The screenings of Annabelle and Ma will not feature a chance to chat with the creepy killer doll (or killer Ma) from either film, but will feature  sneak peeks, exclusive recorded messages from the films’ directors and stars, and surprise special appearances in select markets.

 CEO Jason Blum said in a statement that, “we’re excited to give M3GAN fans an all-new experience in theaters from the team from Meta.”

So far, the special screening of M3GAN is the only one we know of that will employ the Movie Mate technology, but Meta doesn’t spend time and money on tech for it to be used only once, so you can expect to see it rolling out into theaters everywhere before too long.

Over at Meta, they believe that this experience, which includes advertisements sent straight to your phone during the film, is going to encourage more people to see films in theaters.

Omar Zayat, Group Lead Entertainment, Tech, Travel & Gaming, and Auto at Meta said in the statement, “We are excited to continue our longstanding history of innovation in the theatrical space with our friends at Universal Pictures. The M3GAN in-theatre Movie Mate is a first-to-market moviegoer experience. We are happy to introduce filmgoers to it by way of Instagram Direct and Click-to-Messenger Ads.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse to deliver rich experiences designed to get audiences back into theaters,” Zayat continued.