Facebook in its annual F8 developer conference announced a new updated for its Messenger platform with focus on adding a wide range of new tools, which are specially designed to give the users the benefit of using more than 100,000 active bots on the platform.
The above picture suggests the focus is mainly on integrating bots in the messenger feature. However, the challenge for Facebook is to help the common people understand how the bots are going to add value? If you are among of the users with the same question, let us help you understand how this update will beneficial for you:
First and foremost, the new bots will add a new discovery tool, which will help you find the relevant option within the app. A Facebook Official mentioned that the new surface will support people browse through the platform intuitively. It will help in finding the best bots and businesses in Messenger. There are separate categories such as Food & Drink, News, etc.
The new discovery tool (see picture) can be accessed by simply tapping on the new lighting icon, which will be added at the bottom right corner of the screen. The new option is specially designed to help the users find relevant bots within the messenger. Once the feature goes live, it is sure to change the user’s perception of what all can be accomplished within the app.
Apart from the new discovery option, another exciting addition that Facebook announced at the F8 conference is adding bots into the group conversations.
In the above example, the user brought the Spotify bot into a group conversation to share a song amongst his friends on the group chat. Facebook says that this option will support people bring bots into conversations , so that they can help with food ordering, payment splits and more.
Whilst, the bots are integrated into the messenger to provide the users a better user experience, one of the key challenges faced by Facebook was to promote the bots among the users. So to promote the bots, Facebook announced ‘Parametric Messenger Codes,’ which would enable the business organization to generate multiple QR codes for the messenger bots to be able to see, which bots are being scanned the most. Although the messenger QR codes have been in operation since last year, the recent update will give the users the flexibility on how these codes can be used.
M messaging assistant
Recently, Facebook had announced its ambitious new projected named M Al project, which was rolled in a restrained ‘M Assistant’ mode. At F8, however, Facebook announced that M assistant will have the capacity to listen to all the messages at all times and also have the ability to recognize the specific subjects and offer direct assistance. As noted by Facebook, “The whole experience can be completed in Messenger, including group ordering and payment. The more you use M, the more it will make relevant suggestions to you.”
Apart from the messaging assistant and the bots, Facebook is also trying to focus on making it easy for the business organization to automate their process and enable them with the ability to automatically reply to the FAQs (frequently asked questions). BuzzFeed reported that, this new updated will allow the business to set-up responses for the simple and most commonly asked questions like, “What are your business hours?” or “Where are you located?” This updated is a great step forward by Facebook for the small and medium sized businesses set-up an automated process who cannot afford to buy expensive automation tools and yet streamline their processes.
