Facebook’s developer conference, more commonly known as F8 saw many releases and here are a summary of a few bots and other releases.
Spotify
Coming as a chat extention, the Spotify bot for Messenger will serve up playlist recommendations based on mood, activity, or genres. People can search and share Spotify songs, albums, and playlists directly with friends without leaving the Messenger app. Friends on the other end will be able to preview 30-second clips directly within the Messenger app or visit the Spotify app to listen in full.
The Spotify Chat Extensions feature can be activated by tapping on the blue “+” icon to the left of the text box while in conversation, and select the Spotify bot.
Subway
You can order sandwiches and salads from more than 26,500 Subway restaurants in the U.S. Guests can use the bot to order a sandwich or salad, customise it with their favourite bread; cheese; vegetables; and sauce, and pay on any device that supports Messenger.
To use the bot – Open messenger and tap ‘Start Order.’ The bot will ask for the user’s location to find the closest Subway restaurant. Then, the user is guided through selecting the sub bread, cheese, vegetables and sauce, as well as drinks, cookies or chips. Users choose their payment method: Facebook’s payment system or Masterpass, a digital payment service from Mastercard, and the order will be ready for pick up in 15 minutes or less.
MoneyGram
MoneyGram Sendbot allows customers in the U.S. to send money transfers to any of its 350,000 locations around the globe through Facebook Messenger. First full feature money transfer chatbot offering convenient services such as a “track a transfer” tool and location finder. Access it by searching for MoneyGram in the Messenger Discover tab.
Messenger
- Discover tab: Starting to roll out in the US today, right from the home screen, people can find recently used bots, popular experiences and a free-form search field.
- Messenger Codes: New parametric QR codes will let people find out more from a bot for Messenger, just by scanning the code in the Messenger camera.
- Chat Extensions: Enable multiple people to chat with the same business at the same time. Add a bot directly in a group thread, allowing people to virally share bots. Current available: Spotify, TheScore, OpenTable, Food Network, NBA, Wall Street Journal and Kayak — with many more on the way.
- Rich Gameplay: Adding additional product features like game bots and Rich Gameplay (turn-by-turn games). Challenge your friends to a game in Messenger by tapping the Games tab on the Messenger home screen – which is starting to roll out today in the US.
- More from M: M, the virtual assistant, now makes suggestions in your conversations. Powered by AI, M recognises when people are doing specific tasks. Today M can now offer the ability to order food through delivery.com. Whole experience can be completed in Messenger, including group ordering and payment. The more you use M, the more it will make relevant suggestions to you. This is available in the US.
- Smart Replies for Pages: Ability for Pages to respond to the most frequently asked questions, such as business hours, directions and contact details. Powered by our AI bot engine, Wit.ai, Smart Replies offers an API that enables businesses to create an AI-powered responder to these types of FAQs.
- Parametric Messenger Codes: Generate multiple parametric QR codes for one bot. For example, to track where a code was scanned, or to apply a different QR code for each table at a restaurant.
- Hand-over Protocol: Businesses can work with multiple developers for different experiences on Messenger. For example, a business might want to have a personal shopping bot and also a customer service bot. Different vendors and developers will be able to manage the conversation for the use case the customer is requesting.
Facebook Spaces
VR app that allows you to hang out with avatars of your friends. Available in beta for Oculus Rift and Touch today, and you can download it now from the Oculus Store. Cutomise your look in VR and hangout with friends (in their VR form). Draw in the air with a virtual marker to create anything or find a variety of Facebook content to view with friends in VR, including 360 videos and photos that can transport you to new places. Relive personal memories from your own Timelines, or make new ones.
You can also phone a friend in the real world with Messenger video calling. They can answer your call on their phone to instantly open a window into your virtual world. Also comes with a selfie stick to take photos of your experience and share the memories you create in VR on Facebook.
Users are in control, so they can pause anytime and move to a quiet space, taking a break from other people and activities. You can mute friends or remove them from spaces.