We have heard about them for a long, long time, we doubted their existence, we speculated about how they could be and how they could work: we are talking about Facebook bots, those that until a few hours ago remained only rumors and chatter but which, during the F8 conference, they found official status.
Yes, because i Facebook Messenger bots really exist and they do exactly what you'd expect from a bot: they give information and offer fully automated services!
In this case, the social networking giant has designed them to facilitate even more the interaction between companies and users on Facebook Messenger and ensure that the owners could have an additional tool to offer services to their customers or their followers.
At the moment Facebook has tested the new functionality in collaboration with several partners (about 33), whose bots are currently present on Messenger.
How does a Messenger bot work?
First of all it will be necessary update the Facebook Messenger app for Android and iOS, an app that now has a dedicated search bar placed on the top: to search for a bot just enter the name or nick of the company in the search bar. Alternatively, it will be possible start the conversation with a bot by scanning the Messenger Code or by clicking on a Messenger Link.
Once the conversation with a bot is open, a short tutorial will be available with instructions on how to interact with it: for example, adding the bot Pocho (which allows you to automatically get the weather forecast of a city) will come to you immediately asked where you live and possibly if suffer from allergies or other seasonal diseases / related to air and weather conditions, as well as refine the results based on the information received.
But this is just an example: the bots currently available (some working exclusively in the United States) allow order flowers, food (Burger King), check the own bank account, print photos (HP), respond to health surveys (HealthTap) ed start b2b collaborations between services, as well as receive news from the world related to a certain category (e.g. from Business Insider and CNN) or the major news of the day.
This latter mechanism, however, needs some refinement: the CNN bot, questioned about the latest news in terms of technology, for example, returned an article on ... a wombat! This clearly demonstrates that there is a need to improve the interpretation of natural language, an interpretation which, given the progress, will undoubtedly become more and more efficient over time.
In short, bots open up numerous scenarios for companies to interact with their users but also make concrete one of the things that most terrifies users themselves: being bombarded with spam and advertisements.
We had already told you that this is one of the strategies that Facebook intends to use to monetize Messenger in some way through companies: the giant has hinted that companies will be able to use the Messenger platform and bots to offer advertising messages to their users, always provided that it was the users who initiated the conversation.
But even in this case there is little to fear: it is possible deactivate the reception on Messenger of advertising messages only, as well as that of all messages, from the companies that own the pages (and therefore from bots and conversations). Thankfully, I'd dare to say, as otherwise Messenger would have become a definite place to avoid.
If you want to try the Messenger bots for yourself, all you have to do is update the Android / iOS app to the latest version available (you may have to wait a few days) and start conversations with one of the participating partners.
Yet ... I have the feeling that I have already seen these bots somewhere else ...
images: Mashable
Official: Facebook Messenger bots are coming!
