Facebook is not done with us yet. Not by a long shot. It has plans for world domination. But first, it wants to dominate your Messenger. The plans for this were announced at the company's F8 developer conference which is still in progress.
Starting soon, Facebook is opening up that companion app, Facebook's Messenger, to companies who will populate it with chat bots. These personal assistants will help you buy anything you want -- practically. Instead of having to install the app's of various brands and services to buy or get customer service, you'll be able to chat it out with a voice assistant. You can get help with selecting as well as straight buying from within the Messenger app.
Good luck finding any messages from friends and relatives. Messenger's main job will be to link you with businesses and yes, there'll be ads too.
As usual, it's a double edged sword. On the one hand there's the convenience.You don't need to download an app which will then show you options to wade through and you buy and after tracking your package until it's delivered, offload the app from your phone because it's taking up unnecessary space and sending you notifications to buy this and that. You instead need to just chat it out on Messenger and that company's bot, which you will get by searching by brand name.
Just how intrusive and annoying this is going to be, just how much it's going to cut further into your privacy, can be guessed at. As ever, you can get into some settings and switch off something, but the extent to which companies expect users to tinker with settings to turn notifications and other annoyances off is getting unmanageable as it is.
The plan for chat bots in Messenger has been in the offing for some time now. "Over the past year as we’ve been expanding what people can do on Messenger, we’ve been laser focused on creating the best and most engaging experiences. Part of this effort has been partnering with a few businesses to build deeper interactions with their customers on Messenger in a way that is contextual, convenient, and delightful, with control at it’s core. Today we are launching the Messenger Platform (Beta) with bots and our Send / Receive API," says David Marcus, VP of Messaging Products for Facebook.
"Bots can provide anything from automated subscription content like weather and traffic updates, to customized communications like receipts, shipping notifications, and live automated messages all by interacting directly with the people who want to get them," he says.
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
