Facebook has announced that the social network now counts more than 11,000 bots on its platform, just months after introducing the first bots for Messenger at F8.
According to PCMag, bots seems to be a big deal on Facebook. With automated-response services, the 11,000 bots currently active on Facebook Messenger help users to do even more useful things on the social media network.
In early 2015, Facebook acquired Wit.ai, an engine that helps bot developers associate messaged requests with the right context. Around 23,000 developers have signed up for the Facebook's Wit.ai bot engine.
A blog post from Facebook explains that on www.messengerblog.com developers can find case studies, tips and a special Q&A series with some of the brands and businesses that have already built bots for Messenger. The resources could help developers design and grow their own bots.
According to Mashable, the company also introduced some major improvements to how the bots work inside of Messenger. The updates aim to add more functionality and more streamlined features. Among the new features is included the ability to use GIFs and other media with bots.
Facebook also implemented a new quick reply feature that, based on the conversation, will provide suggested responses. This new feature will help guard against the issues many Messenger users encountered with the initial wave of bots.
Users are gaining more control over how they can manage their conversations with bots. In case that they do not want to see notifications from a certain bot, users have now the ability to mute it. Through star ratings and reviews, bot developers can receive direct feedback from users.
For the developers and businesses that create the bots, Facebook is also upgrading the capabilities of the bots. Customer accounts can now be connected to businesses' Messenger accounts. Based on what the companies already know about their customers, the bots will be better able to create personalized experiences, in case users opt in to this.
