As more and more consumers are opting to not install apps on their phones, new technology has to be made. Good apps that entice consumers to download them and replace precious space on their phone are costly to make and hard to get noticed. In response to this growing problem, many tech leaders have started developing chatbots and drumming up intrigue in the process.
To combat this growing problem, Facebook developed a chatbot platform for their Messenger app. This technology allows customers to interact with businesses directly without having to download a dedicated app in the process. This is an important statistic because the average mobile consumer only uses up to 10 apps regularly and rarely installs new apps.
Facebook recently announced that the Messenger platform is opening support for third-party chatbots. Ultimately this could lead to a widely-used application option for businesses to create their own third-party chatbot that focuses solely on customer satisfaction and product or service education. This could be incredibly effective for businesses because a dedicated app would no longer be needed.
For developers that are currently trying to build chatbots for the Facebook platform, Wit.ai is the most logical tool. This natural language chatbot building tool supports many different languages and is FREE to any developer that wants to use it. The best part is you retain ownership of your data as long as Facebook can use the developer data to improve the Wit platform.
Other non-Facebook native chatbot options for developers include Microsoft’s Bot Framework to create chatbots for themselves or smaller companies with no integration necessary. Another option that is open source is Howdy’s Botkit. Available through GitHub, this tool incorporates support for Slack, Messenger and many more messaging-ready platforms.
Chatbots are expected to take over in 2017 and are already poised to do so. With the constant buzz this technology is getting, and the rise of conversational interfaces such as Alexa and Google Assist, chatbot involvement in all our technology applications is endless. Get ahead of the curve and start building your chatbot today!
You can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your business listing, website development, marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2017 your business’ best year yet. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!