We’re sure many of you guys have chatted with chatbots on the internet before. For those unfamiliar, chatbots are basically bots that are supposed to simulate conversations that you might have with a real person. This tool has been used for humorous purposes, but it has also been used for customer service purposes which simple questions can be solved without a real person being present.
That being said, a report from Engadget has revealed that the latest update to Facebook Messenger has revealed that the company could be entertaining the idea of chatbots. As you can see in the image above, there is a new category heading in the app called “Bots and Businesses” where prior to the update, it only said “Businesses”.
What does this mean? Basically it sounds like Facebook could be introducing the feature to Messenger to allow companies to create chatbots in which users can chat with to request for help. As pointed out by Engadget, Uber and Lyft currently have a similar service in place when requesting for your ride’s updates. KLM also has a chatbot that allows users to book flights.
The feature in Messenger seems to suggest that Facebook could be expanding chatbot functionality and allow more businesses to utilize the tool for their operations. In any case Facebook’s F8 keynote will be kicking off later today so perhaps more will be revealed then.