Facebook launches Messenger platform with chatbots
Facebook users will soon be able … Mike Rosenbaum / salesforce.com : Introducing Salesforce for Messenger Al Plumlier / The Verge : There will be a bot for everything — It's all happening at once … Catalin Cimpanu / Softpedia News : Facebook Launches “Bots on Messenger” in an Attempt to Make Mobile Apps Obsolete Nate Swanner / The Next Web : Here's how you can try Messenger bots (but we're warning you, they kinda suck) Bob O'Donnell / Re/code : Bloops and Blips Ahead for Bots Toma Štolfa / The Startup : Why Messaging Bots Won't Replace Apps Kia Kokalitcheva / Fortune : Facebook Welcomes ‘Chat Bots’ to Its Messenger App Taylor Soper / GeekWire : Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg bashes Donald Trump's campaign in F8 keynote Christina Warren / Mashable : You can now build bots for Facebook Messenger Bertel King, Jr / Android Police : The Facebook Messenger Platform Is Gaining Support For Bots David Marcus / Facebook : Messenger Platform at F8 Brent Dirks / AppAdvice.com Latest : Facebook's new Messenger Platform brings bots into the fold Chris Preimesberger / eWeek : Facebook Unleashes Big Data Workload of News at F8 Adrian Potoroaca / Neowin : Facebook's 10-year roadmap revealed at F8 conference, includes chatbots and AR Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today : FACEBOOK F8: FACEBOOK ANNOUNCES ‘BOTS FOR MESSENGER’ PLATFORM Iain Thomson / The Register : Zuck: You're still using non-Facebook websites ... I'll put an end to that Zak Stambor / internetretailer.com : Facebook lets retailers sell via its Messenger app Re/code : Facebook Messenger bots can now help you order flowers and shop for clothes Greg Barbosa / 9to5Mac : Here's everything Facebook announced at F8 that's coming soon to your iPhone Damon Beres / The Huffington Post : Facebook's Vision For The Future Might Demolish Business As You Know It Evan Selleck / iPhone Hacks : Facebook Launches Chatbots in the Messenger Platform Ken Yeung / VentureBeat : Twilio adds Facebook Messenger to its communication API platform Tweets: Jenn Van Grove / @jbruin : CNN Messenger bot is kind of dumb but at least it employs my favorite emoticon (¯\_()_/¯) when it's confusedpic.twitter.com/uupW5ulSCo Thanks: @joshconstine
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the payoff of a year-long build-out: Facebook first opened Messenger to third-party apps and business conversations with the 2015 Messenger Platform, then quietly gave select developers chat-SDK access in January to prototype shopping and travel bots (the January SDK leak). Today's F8 launch turns that pilot into a public platform, announced alongside the Bot Engine built on the Wit.ai acquisition for machine-learning-driven bots.
The framing in the surrounding coverage is explicitly competitive with the app store model — one outlet calls it an attempt to make mobile apps obsolete, while others are already skeptical that early bots 'kinda suck' or that messaging will replace apps at all.
First-order effects
- Developers and businesses can now build bots and live-chat services directly inside Messenger using Facebook's new APIs, moving customer service and commerce from standalone apps into a thread.
- Early adopters like Salesforce (with Salesforce for Messenger) gain a distribution channel to a massive installed base without building or maintaining their own apps.
Second-order effects
- Communication-infrastructure players follow immediately — Twilio adds Messenger support to its APIs, meaning any business already wired for SMS can route the same flows into Messenger.
- App developers face a pricing and discovery question: if transactions happen in-thread, the app store's cut and install funnel become optional, pressuring the mobile distribution economics Facebook's rivals depend on.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — and the July update showing 11K bots plus ratings and quick-reply features suggests Facebook is iterating fast — the conversation thread becomes a transaction layer, with platforms that own the messaging graph capturing the commerce and service interactions apps used to own.
- The counterargument in the coverage (bots won't replace apps) points to the real open question: whether conversational interfaces mature fast enough to displace GUIs, or settle into a hybrid where bots handle routine service and apps keep complex tasks.
The trend: Messaging platforms are evolving from communication channels into operating layers for commerce and services, with Facebook using Messenger's reach to challenge the app-centric mobile economy.