Dive Brief:
- Facebook
Messenger is evolving with several updates, in what's being called
Messenger Platform 2.0, including the ability to assimilate services
from various apps such as Spotify and OpenTable directly into the
messaging platform via a feature called chat extentions, according to a report in Fortune on Facebook’s annual developer
conference F8, which opened yesterday. The news was also
announced on the Messenger blog.
- Explaining
chat extensions, The Verge likened them to the
iMessage App Store, albeit “with a nicer design.” They allow users to
pursue activities beyond chatting — listening to music or booking a
restaurant reservation, for instance — without exiting
Messenger.
- Facebook
has also rolled out a Discovery tab in Messenger that spotlights featured
and trending chatbots, and contains a search bar to help identify new
ones; automated suggestions from the AI-powered digital assistant M; and
Messenger QR codes that can be scanned with the Messenger camera to
connect users to branded chatbots.
Dive Insight:
Facebook Messenger chief David Marcus has
acknowledged early chatbots weren’t that great. The AI-powered customer service
agents have been criticized as being ineffective and disappointing to
the consumers brands are trying to please with them. Even when they do provide
a good service, chatbots have been hard to find. Bloomberg suggests “part of that was on
purpose.” Marcus was giving chatbot creators time to better the programmed
conversationalists, which currently total 100,000 on Messenger.
Now, Messenger is unmasking its chatbots to
encourage bot-human interactions. The Discover tab within the chat platform
will be a destination users understand they can go to in order to check out
chatbots. It’s likely to expose them to bots — and, correspondingly,
businesses — that they weren’t aware were available on Messenger.
Additionally, Messenger’s digital assistant M will recommend chatbots to users
amid conversations to let them know there might be a bot that can handle a
service — like pizza delivery or ride sharing, for example — they
might be interested in.
Along with the chat extensions that allow
users to stay within Messenger if they want to hear music, among other
pastimes, Messenger’s intent is to be “the centralized place for daily
activities,” per Fortune. But Bloomberg points out that Facebook’s money-making
goals for all the hanging out on Messenger aren’t clear. Marcus has stated
advertising is a focus for Messenger’s business. Certainly, for marketers,
Messenger is a compelling platform if its 1.2 billion users stick around on it
for a range of tasks. And, if Facebook decides to chase additional
revenue-producing ventures, it can’t hurt that Messenger is giving users more
reasons to stay within its ecosystem.
#MobileMarketing #Application
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