Social Messaging Bots Will Be the Biggest Thing Since the Establishment of Facebook

Later this week at the F8 conference, it is rumored that Facebook will announce a Chat Bot store.

Facebook has had a productive few years - ramp of Videos, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instant Articles. As the core “Facebook.com" experience is becoming very much about video and media content, there are 2 major assets that might be worth more down the road than the Facebook core experience. It is also finally obvious that splitting Facebook and Messenger, while controversial, was one of the smartest moves Facebook has ever done. Today, everyone is talking about bots - Techcrunch called it the most important launch since the AppStore, and we agree - we have been covering this for a while. 

But what can really happen?

Could bots replace apps and websites?
You could argue - well, these bots will effectively use HTML5 - so in part, they are websites. But these bots are a lot more - they are a new form of user experience, and where apps became a great improvement few years back, they are fairly dumb - apps require big download, constant input of information, and bots could be different and fix that. Through amazing control, bots could have the level of information Facebook has, they could help you save credit card details without taking the obscene revenue share Apple takes for apps, making it impossible for traditional goods.

Examples are already out there: KLM and Facebook Messenger
KLM introduced the ability to write KLM and immediately download a boarding pass. This is possible due to the tight CRM connection KLM has with one customer - and its an amazing use-case. You also have the ability to upgrade your seats straight from messenger - that's amazing! 

Few examples of how they can be used:

• Buying groceries on Amazon.com - you just write a DM to Amazon that you want to deliver the same thing, but remove the kale. The system will send you a shopping list to confirm, and there you go! Things are on the way
• Services - like ordering Uber - why would you ever do it via their app? This experience is so much easier and better
• Booking a holiday was never simpler - you can have a constantly open thread

Bot stores work - Telegram was the first
Telegram was probably one of the biggest companies to have launched bots in messengers and bot stores - these guys have an amazing foresight when it comes to new things, and I recommend trying many bots there.

Check out a few Social Media Minutes we have done on the subject over the last several months:

Future of social messaging are bots
AI chatbots - and how will they change business

Brands stop ignoring social messaging