Yesterday’s Facebook Developer Conference confirmed the launch of chatbots on Facebook Messenger. We already know what this means so today, we’re going to be looking at Facebook Messenger’s bot store. For now, there are 40 bots at the store, categorised under “social and fun”, “personal”, “productivity”, “communication” and “health”. But I’m sure that number is going to increase because anyone can build bots on Messenger. Alright, let’s look at the available bots Nigerian users might find interesting.
1. Gif Keyboard
Gifs are all over Twitter. They are like memes but more (I mean they are animated). Guaranteed to spice up any conversation, Gifs would definitely be welcome in any chat. The keyboards helps find and share gifs and videos in chats. Obviously this bot is under “social and fun”.
2. Business on Messenger
This bot is for companies to have two-way conversations with their customers. Customer service is a thing that needs improvement in this here country. It would definitely be nice if customers could interact with businesses without shouting all over social media. This is a communication bot.
3. CNN
Of course the media hopped on the bot trend. With this bot, you can access the news in your messenger with switching between your browser (or the CNN app) and Messenger. Wall Street Journal also has a bot.
4. Doodle for Messenger
As the name implies, this bot helps users send doodles to their friends. So instead of going to your notes app and drawing, you could just make doodle on Messenger.
5. Effectify
The new snapchat filters are hilarious. They let you be an alien, a dog, a lion…whatever. The Effectify bot does that too! So you can be old, fat, a zombie – anything – on Messenger.
These are just a few bots but like I said, a whole lot more are coming. According to a list of available and expected chat bots, the Facebook bot store is definitely going to contain more than the 40 they presently have. I think Nigerian businesses could do something with this. Burger King is creating a bot to provide a way for customers to order food through Messenger (Hello, Chicken Republic and KFC), and the soon-to-be-released Fandango bot will give users quick access to movie information, trailers and show times (Hello, Silverbird, GDC and Filmhouse). Our dearly beloved social media comedians can also make bots to make the Messenger experience fun. I don’t know, I’m just saying.
