Introducing backchannel

backchannel is an open platform for developing messaging bots; a preview release for developers launches today

Our vision:

backchannel enables every business, every advertiser and every phone number to support messaging.

backchannel is building the cloud services in the center. the responses from the dentist are generated automatically by the backchannel bot that is connected to the dentist’s scheduling system.

Hello, world! Today we are launching a developer preview release of our new service: backchannel.

Developers can sign up at http://dev.backchannel.net

The backchannel developer preview release 1.0 includes (1) a new open source framework, BotL, used to author messaging bots, (2) a web-based development environment used to author bots for any messaging platform including SMS, Facebook Messenger, Kik, Line, Telegram, Amazon Echo and (3) a cloud platform used to deploy and scale bots worldwide.

If you are a developer interested in getting involved in the emerging messaging bot ecosystem, please sign up here.

Why we created backchannel and what we believe to be true

1. There are millions of use cases for messaging. Today, messaging is primarily used for personal communications. We believe there are millions of uses for messaging that cover a wide range of additional use cases: entertainment, commerce, advertising, information, customer service, and more. We created a platform to enable developers to easily build, test, deploy and operate any type of messaging bot. Messaging apps are much easier to build than a web page or a mobile app. In our closed beta we’ve seen many creative examples of different types of bots from frivolous and fun to useful and necessary. As the backchannel platform evolves and messaging clients add new platform capabilities we expect to see more sophisticated bots to emerge.
2. Messaging clients will evolve into application platforms. Clients today support text and images due to their SMS/MMS origin. We believe messaging clients will evolve to support richer interactions that will provide a better experience for their users. We also think messaging clients will evolve to support application development. Messaging clients will likely evolve much like browsers; start out displaying static information, evolve into support for applications and then mature into a full OS-like platform with authentication, security, payments and more.
3. Messaging bots will evolve to rival web pages and mobile apps for developer attention. Developers can now choose to build a web site, mobile app or messaging bot to provide an experience to users. Some developers will pick one platform over another. However we think developers will also build hybrid services that use mobile apps, web technology and messaging to provide a user experience across multiple communication channels. We’ve seen examples of this already in our testing. Developers build awesome stuff if you give them great tools and the right APIs.
4. Everything we believe is true worldwide. Developers outside the US seem to embrace messaging bots. Over time, we think that developers who are fluent in technology will spread that technology to each other and messaging bots will gain developer interest worldwide.
5. This is very exciting! :)

Messaging + phone calls = Phone Calls 2.0

We are a company of developers who seek to make the world more efficient through technology. As you might guess, we constantly complain about products and services in our lives that are inefficient, irritating and outdated. Phone calls are inefficient, irritating and outdated! We are building backchannel to extend the 140 year old phone call with modern messaging.

1. Phone calls are a poor experience most of the time. This is almost always true when calling a business and sometimes true when calling a person. Phone calls are poor because they must be synchronous, the verbal exchange of information is slow and error prone, and phone ringing is an inconsiderate and jarring notification method. Voicemail is a relic and inconvenient for the sender and receiver. Phone tag is insanity. We believe that every phone number in the world should support messaging.
2. Phone calling isn’t going away anytime soon. Look around, phone numbers are everywhere…on signs, on billboards, on the back of trucks, on web pages, on ads. Our brains seem to be conditioned to remember phone numbers. Everyone knows how to make a phone call.
3. A phone call is a natural on ramp into a messaging experience. The backchannel platform enhances phone calls with a feature we call TextBack. TextBack integrates messaging with phone calls. It’s simple: any phone number can be connected to backchannel. Calling the phone number works just as it does today. But backchannel enhances and extends the phone number by sending a text message during the first few moments of the call. The caller discovers messaging through a normal phone call.
4. There is a great opportunity for developers to bring messaging to businesses of all sizes. Generally speaking, when a service is easier to use, simpler and faster, customers tend to migrate to it. We think businesses who support messaging will be preferred by users to businesses who don’t. Therefore every business in the world should support messaging as a way to communicate with customers. People love messaging but most businesses today don’t support it (but almost every business has a phone….) This is a massive economic opportunity for developers.

Recap of today’s announcement

• Today we released a developer preview of backchannel.
• backchannel is a platform where developers can build any type of messaging bot.
• backchannel developer preview includes an open source programming framework for messaging bots called BotL.
• backchannel developer preview also includes a web based IDE to author bots and deploy them to any messaging platform including SMS, Facebook Messenger, Kik, Line, Telegram, Amazon Echo. More coming soon.
• backchannel developer preview also includes a cloud platform to host and scale messaging bots.
• backchannel believes that phone calls can be more useful by integrating messaging into the phone call experience through a backchannel capability called TextBack.
• developers can sign up for the developer preview now.
• follow us on Twitter or Medium for updates. Our site is at http://dev.backchannel.net

Footnotes:

1. Every startup stands on the shoulders of those who came before. We want to tip our hats to Tellme Networks and their Dial Tone 2.0 vision that inspired us to build backchannel. VoiceXML inspired BotL. And we’re inspired by tools such as Visual Basic 3.0 and HyperCard that enabled any developer to author amazing applications. We also want to thank Steve Ballmer for validating our developer centric approach.
2. backchannel is lowercase because that is how people type when they text. We thought about naming our company with an emoji but few people understood that so we used lowercase text.
3. Why doesn’t this post mention AI or machine learning? At backchannel we love all technology. Our platform enables developers to build AI bots that act like intelligent agents. And our platform will enable developers to use machine learning services to make their bots even more intelligent and natural. Our platform also enables developers to write simple bots using string comparison technology. :)
4. Where can one find out more about BotL (pronounced like “bottle”)? Here’s a Github link and we’ll be revealing more about BotL soon. Follow us on Twitter or Medium.
5. Thanks to Mary Meeker and team for publishing your annual report and including messaging data. [WeChat], [messaging leaders], [beautiful communication], [messaging app usage]
6. Thanks to Deloitte for their Technology and Media Predictions report that shows the rise of messaging usage and the fall of phone usage.

Follow us on Twitter or Medium. Our site is at http://dev.backchannel.net

backchannel

ttyl