Facebook has today rolled out an update on the Messenger Platform.
Since the launch of the Messenger platform, over 11,000 bots have been launched on Messenger and over 23,000 developers have signed up for Wit.ai’s Bot Engine.
Some of the great new features and tools for people building bots to use are
- Ratings: People can now provide a star rating and open text feedback for bot developers. Ratings and reviews are currently shared with only the bot developer through a dashboard in developers.facebook.com and via email.
- Quick replies: Quick replies offer a more guided experience for people as they interact with your bot, which helps set expectations on what the bot can do. They include up to ten dynamic buttons that directly align with the most recent message sent by the business – making it easier to have an automated conversation with people. They allow for simple state management for developers — no need to manage button taps from ten messages ago — and make chat history cleaner, by only showing the selected responses.
Persistent menu: The navigation for your bot with support for up to five actions. This eliminates the need for people to remember text commands and provides a great way to restart the flow or invoke settings. This will help with bot re-engagement and consistency. - Account linking: Facebook is launching a secure protocol for businesses to connect their customers’ accounts with Messenger accounts, enabling a deeper and more personal experience. People will have to opt in to this experience.
- More content types: GIFs, Audio, Video, and Files Get your brand’s personality across by sending a variety of content types. You can now send GIFs, audio, video, and other files to people using your bot in Messenger. Videos and audio clips play natively in Messenger.
- More Control: Manage / Mute / Ratings Now, people have even more ways to optimize their experiences with bots in Messenger. People can choose to mute a bot just like they can mute a conversation with their friends and they can also provide a star rating and feedback for bot developers. Ratings and reviews are currently shared with only the bot developer through a dashboard in developers.facebook.com and via email.
Facebook has also launched a great resource for businesses and developers to discover and find out more about what is working really well on the platform from our product and engineering teams.
It includes tips, case studies and a special Q&A series with some of the businesses and brands who have already built bots for Messenger.
You can find it here www.messengerblog.com
