Facebook Simplifies Bot Interactions

Facebook released several new features for bot developers on the Messenger Platform last week that could just make the conversational technology more accessible, intuitive and seamless.

Bots have captured the attention of many developers but Facebook (as well as others including Microsoft) just have not been able to gain any traction. That might be due to the complexity of interacting with the bots that are being created but the new updates do aim to change that.

Some of the most interesting new features including ratings (users can provide star rating and open-text feedback for bot developers), quick-replies (pre-assigned action buttons to help users navigate the bot), persistent menu's (a list of up to five commands that developers can use in the chat interface), as well as account linking (a secure protocol that lets businesses connect existing accounts with their Messenger accounts.