What FB Messenger Platform Means For Brands

Yesterday at F8 Facebook announced the launch of their Messenger Platform, a place for third-party developers to build apps for its 600M users. The announcement puts focus on a more content-rich experience in Messenger, and gives developers and publishers a gateway into the Messenger audience. At Snaps, we're already positioned to help brands reach their audiences in Messenger and excited to continue to develop products helping brands reach new and existing audiences through messaging.

Moving forward, Facebook Messenger apps will be accessible from a triple-dot button in the composer, launching a list of previously installed apps and access to new ones. From this list, users can select apps to search for specific content types (for instance GIPHY), find the content they want to share and seamlessly share with a built-in 'Send to Messenger' button. In-message, each piece of content is actionable – allowing users to install the apps themselves and reply with their very own GIF, emoji or video. This allows a more viral loop of not just content sharing but also apps themselves.

We are excited to explore the FBM platform over the coming months, and will likely be releasing new products for our brand partners soon.

It's also important to remember that the messaging space, unlike the social space, is highly fragmented, and there are other competing platforms with massive audiences, even in the US like Kik (200mm MAUs, Tango (80mm+ MAUs) and iMessage (Apple doesn't provide numbers, but it's safe to assume that iMessage has at least 500mm MAUs).

Since Snaps keyboards work in both Facebook Messenger and iMessage, users can already send "Broad City" emojis, Chicken Fries stickers or Comedy Central’s "Workaholics" GIFs to friends on both platforms. We’re also happy to announce that we’re already working great distribution parters to help brands reach new audiences including a campaign with Burger King for the promotion of Chicken Fries on the messaging apps Kik, and Kanvas.

For marketers developing a strategy in messaging, it's important to consider multiple media types (emoji, stickers, GIFs and video), all available networks and all user experiences before investing deeply in the space. The Snaps platform offers access to a broad set of engagement and distribution solutions that work across networks.

It's exciting to see so many services developing unique offerings in the messaging space, and we're thrilled to be integrated with the best of them.