Why Messenger is the Ideal Bot Platform for Now
10 Reasons Why Businesses Need to Develope for Messenger First
Over the past year, I have talked to many companies, and the majority of them prefer making a bot on SMS over other platforms. Some of their main concerns, like privacy, are legitimate while many others are based on some inaccurate assumptions. Let’s look at what the facts tell us!
1. Messenger is More Popular than SMS
Messenger has over 1 Billion daily active users worldwide, making it one of most popular messaging apps. More importantly, Messenger is the most popular messaging service in the US. It surpasses SMS usage in both number of users and frequency of use.
Overall preference depends on location. For example, France was the only country that prefered SMS while US Consumers favored Messenger.
2. Better User Experience
Messenger is constantly evolving and the user experience is much better than SMS. For example, Messenger has a number of pre-built UI elements like cards, carousels, quick response buttons, a persistent menu and even checkout cards.
Consumers can buy items directly through messenger without being redirected somewhere else.
3. Selling in Messenger
Selling in Messenger is designed to be seamless. Facebook already has the payment details and making a purchase is as simple as clicking a button.
What makes this even more interesting, is your opportunity to recover abandoned shopping carts. The average shopping cart gets abandoned 65% of the time. Unlike websites, where the user can abandon the cart and never return to the site, you know who is using the bot and you have direct access to the user. This means that he will have multiple opportunities to execute the sale and it also means that your sales team can quickly intervene and help close the sale.
4. Security
This is one of the main reasons why companies build for SMS instead of messaging platforms, they assume that SMS is more secure and they are wrong.
Both SMS and Messenger have end to end encryption on their messages. However, SMS providers are required to share texts with government agencies for security reasons while Messenger doesn’t have to comply with such laws. Lastly, is the issue of messages getting hacked. To put it simple, whose team of technology experts do you trust more, ATT/Verizon or Facebook?
5. Discovery: Yes they are working on it and it will be better than you Imagine
SMS bots have zero chance of being discovered and a very low chance of being shared. On Messenger, discovery is very limited however it is improving.
In the future, discovery will be seamless. Not only will there be a robust Facebook Bot Store but Messenger will introduce people to your bot seamlessly. For example, let’s say that you and a friend are talking about watching a movie together, soon Facebook will allow both of you to seamless purchase tickets within the conversation. This will extend to products and services and before you know it, you will be ordering pizza, planning a vacations and even paying your bar tab all via Messenger Bots.
6. Inherently Social
Messenger is inherently social which means you bot will be easy for people to share with their friends. Moreover, soon bots will be able to participate in group conversations. They will be able to coordinate and solve problems in new and unique ways. So, if you are building a consumer facing bot that can solve problems for groups of people, for example a travel bot, Messenger is the a must have.
Lastly, since Messenger sits on-top of a social network, it can make everyday service bots go viral. We are already seeing this on WeChat, as local services, like Pet Care, go viral. Soon we will be seeing this on Messenger.
7. User Data & Marketing
No one has more user data or insights than Facebook. When creating a consumer facing product, having this data is gold. You can quickly learn about who is using your bot, when, why and target a similar audience right through Facebook. You can not do any of this with an SMS bot.
8. It’s Already Online
If you build an SMS bot, chances are you will also need to build a web portal. One of the biggest advantages of Messenger is that it is already online and people can access it from any phone or computer.
9. Faster & Cheaper
From a product design perspective, due to all of the UI elements, it is easier to develop for Messenger. Overall, it can be faster and cheaper to develop a bot for Messenger.
10. Constantly Evolving
Facebook has invested heavily in Messenger and they are constantly evolving the product. Ultimately this means that the Bots on Messenger will be the better and considering how technology is a winner take all marketplace, don’t be surprised if Facebook owns this market.
Resources:
Data Study: http://www.mobileecosystemforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Messaging_Report.pdf
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About Stefan
Stefan Kojouharov is a pioneering figure in the AI and chatbot industry, with a rich history of contributing to its evolution since 2016. Through his influential publications, conferences, and workshops, Stefan has been at the forefront of shaping the landscape of conversational AI.
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