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Last week, Facebook unveiled a number of new features for bot developers on the Messenger Platform aimed at making the conversational tech more accessible to users.
The updates, which include features like pre-set reply buttons, and a rating system for users, should help make bot interactions more intuitive and seamless.
The updates come as the growth of Messenger’s bot ecosystem hits a speed bump. Although more than 11,000 bots have been launched on Messenger since its launch in April, that’s only a small lift from the 10,000 bots the company reported in May.
In essence, Facebook is joining together the conversational responsiveness and accessibility of chatbots with the intuitive interface of apps. This is a vital evolution for Facebook as it attempts to gain the necessary traction for the nascent technology. Facebook hopes the updates and additions to the bot interface will incentivize further engagement with users, which, in turn, will entice more developers to the platform.
Here are the most important updates Facebook is bringing to Messenger:
- Ratings: Users can now provide star rating and open-text feedback for bot developers. This will help developers get a better feel for how to improve their software.
- Quick replies: These are pre-assigned action buttons developers can deploy to help users navigate the bot. For example, a movie bot might ask what type of genre a user likes. An array of buttons will appear at the bottom of the screen giving users options for responses. The buttons also help signpost the bot’s capabilities. This solves one of the main pain points of chat bots: Many users don’t know what they have to write to interact with the bots, or what types of tasks bots are capable of completing.
- Persistent menus: a list of up to five commands that developers can place in the chat interface. These will eliminate the need for users to remember text commands as well as provide a way to re-engage lapsed conversations.
- Account linking: This is a secure protocol that lets businesses connect existing customers’ accounts with their Messenger accounts. When a consumer begins a conversation with a business on Messenger, that business will be able to see if the user is already an account holder with the company. Account linking will take away certain friction points, such as getting account information, identity verification, or the type of account the customer has.
Will McKitterick, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, has compiled a detailed report on messaging apps that takes a close look at the size of the messaging app market, how these apps are changing, and the types of opportunities for monetization that have emerged from the growing audience that uses messaging services daily.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
- Mobile messaging apps are massive. The largest services have hundreds of millions of monthly active users (MAU). Falling data prices, cheaper devices, and improved features are helping propel their growth.
- Messaging apps are about more than messaging. The first stage of the chat app revolution was focused on growth. In the next phase, companies will focus on building out services and monetizing chat apps’ massive user base.
- Popular Asian messaging apps like WeChat, KakaoTalk, and LINE have taken the lead in finding innovative ways to keep users engaged. They’ve also built successful strategies for monetizing their services.
- Media companies, and marketers are still investing more time and resources into social networks like Facebook and Twitter than they are into messaging services. That will change as messaging companies build out their services and provide more avenues for connecting brands, publishers, and advertisers with users.
In full, this report:
- Gives a high-level overview of the messaging market in the US by comparing total monthly active users for the top chat apps.
- Examines the user behavior of chat app users, specifically what makes them so attractive to brands, publishers, and advertisers.
- Identifies what distinguishes chat apps in the West from their counterparts in the East.
- Discusses the potentially lucrative avenues companies are pursuing to monetize their services.
- Offers key insights and implications for marketers as they consider interacting with users through these new platforms.
To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:
- Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the future of messaging apps.