Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also demonstrated how he is capable of ordering flowers from 1-800-Flowers through the Messenger app. The primary goal of the chatbot is to allow Facebook Messenger to do anything.
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During the F8 conference, Facebook’s annual event for software developers, Facebook Messenger executive David Marcus announced that they have launched what they call Messenger platform, which came with the recent update.
The bank was one of almost two dozen companies – including eBay, Burger King and CNN – that said it plans to use the Messenger platform to interact with customers through chat bots, artificial intelligence software that can understand questions and provide answers. The bot provides a conversational-style view of the weather and can ping you during specific times about the weather, or just during adverse conditions (high humidity, that sorta thing).
That underscores the importance for Facebook of adding more features to its Messenger and WhatsApp chat services: It needs to keep people engaged – and continue to learn about their interests for advertising purposes, said analyst Ben Bajarin of the Creative Strategies research firm. Those messages will be limited to people who have already used or messaged the company, and those businesses will be able to be blocked as normal, he said.
Facebook Messenger wants to get down to business.
While it may seem a stretch for some to start using Messenger in order to talk to businesses – as opposed to friends and family – Rogers Communications has had great success using the tool. Microsoft recently announced a similar effort with its Skype service, but Facebook appears further along. Live video is a point of emphasis for Facebook right now, and the new API illustrates just how serious Facebook is about making the content format successful and accessible.
While getting to chat with firms that offer you products and services is a great idea, especially when your products need regular maintenance, receiving unsolicited messages on a chat platform from a large number of companies can be equally bothersome.
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To encourage interest in virtual reality, Mr Zuckerberg said every conference attendee would receive a Gear VR, a system that uses a Samsung phone as a screen.
