Facebook Messenger: New Features Release (Sept 2016)

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I recently published simple article explaining the basics about Bots, ChatBots and Artificial Intelligence (AI). If you missed it, you can catch up here.

For those interested in following some industry progress on the topic, I thought I'd share Facebook's most recent updates to their Facebook Messenger App.
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New Messenger App Features

• Facebook Adverts in peoples News Feeds can now include a link directly to the Messenger App as a call to action (select Messenger as a destination under the website clicks objective). For example the"Send Message" button will directly open up a Messenger thread with a copy of the ad or configurable structured message:

image reference: Facebook Developer Blog

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• People or Customers can seamlessly enjoy and interact with a business' mobile website within Messenger. Facebook calls this feature Enhanced Mobile Websites in Messenger [Beta]
• Integrate Payments into Messages - customers can shop without leaving the Messenger App. Messages with Payments [BETA, UNITED STATES ONLY].
• A Welcome Screen for Bots and Pages which tells the user a little more about the Bot or Page they are about to engage with and the experience or more general information to go along with it:

image reference: Facebook Developer Blog

• Seamless sharing capability of Bots in Facebook Messenger - sharing Bots and Content with Friends via intuitively placed buttons and prompts
• App Level Analytics

For Developers and indeed end-users and consumers, these additions mean more convenience from Facebook Messenger and easier native connectivity between the Facebook News Feed and Facebook Messenger.

In addition, and the part I like most about the new added features, is that they help bring Bots closer to people in a simple, easy and intuitive way which means people are more likely to engage with Bots, without knowing it and a win for Facebook and Facebook Messenger. These features also tell a story which is now commonplace, that the world and moreover the business world is adopting messaging over email and features like this will ensure Messenger remains its target audiences App of choice.

If you enjoyed this article please like it, send others to follow me by sharing it and of course stay tuned for more. As always feel free to connect with me, always keen to meet new and exciting minds.
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Glenn Miller (Sydney)