Among the more recent ones is a basketball game played more than 1 billion times that coincided with the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament and a soccer game timed with the 2016 World Cup.Īnd as businesses have clamored for more discovery features, so too have game developers.

For more than a year, the company has slowly been introducing games that you can play natively within the chat app. Like with Messenger’s Discovery tab, Facebook is also adding a tab dedicated towards gameplay. How the businesses and bots will be organized in appearance remains unknown, but it’s feasible to think that Facebook is using a variety of signals, such as previous conversations, who you’ve followed or Pages you’ve liked, and nearby businesses. Perhaps in doing so, Facebook could somehow show brands how to be creative in their usage. The current home feed on the app is too busy, so it’s time to streamline things to prove the benefit of what the platform can do. And while the company boasted that Pages were mobile-first, the feature was limited in facilitating a dialogue with people this is the niche that Messenger can fill. In addition, Chudnovsky shared that nearby businesses would be featured, such as a local barber shop where a prospective customer can talk to the bot, set up an appointment, tap to see when they’re open or closed, get directions - it’s “what everyone wanted,” he said.įacebook has introduced numerous updates to its Pages feature, giving businesses new ways to connect with customers. In this new Discovery tab, businesses of all kinds will be there, be it those with physical locations like Neiman Marcus or well-known brands such as AT&T, Comcast, and CNN, along with other bots.

If you build it, they’ll come, but only if they can find you. He stated that Messenger has always “people direct.” With brands eager to tap into the conversational commerce, it’s one thing to get them on board using the app - it’s another thing to drive customers to use it. “The same place where you can find people, the same with businesses where you can connect directly with businesses, places, and services.” “This is the place where businesses live,” Chudnovsky explained. Facebook has now extracted all businesses and bots to have them reside in a new Discover tab. The home screen on Messenger has become increasingly congested, filled with not only your recent conversations, but unseen messages, favorites, birthday notifications, people who are active now, games, and of course Messenger Day. Until now, a store or directory didn’t exist.

Users would have to either be directly linked to the bot from, say, the developer’s Page or locate them through the search bar. Finding a business and a bot can sometimes require a bit of work within Messenger.

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