Messenger Integration (Part 2)
To build on Messenger Integration (Part 1), Part 2 explores the consumer-facing business in the chatbot frenzy.
Why don’t Cineplex, Papa John’s and Netflix make chatbots and go to where their customers are? The short answer: companies slow and already invested into precursor technology like traditional mobile apps, complete with complex UIs and a hefty price tag.
For them, moving to chatbots would be comparable to telcos setting up a network of telephone poles, signing up a few users and then scrapping the whole project and moving onto the next new technology without meeting financial goals. They’ll stay in the past to make returns instead of move on.
In the current app landscape, many services that have no business being traditional mobile apps could be a simple cross-platform, conversational UI chatbot. On the other hand, businesses eager to make a cool chatbot need to determine if the UI/UX of chatting does justice to their service.
The interface and experience of chat could mesh well as a small pop-up inside an existing app. The reverse is not true; not all existing apps can integrate into a chat interface.
Take a look at how FB Chess enters your conversation.
The board takes up ~70% of the screen. Imagine that box is Papa John’s bot, showing what toppings your group is selecting. Or what if it was a calendar bouncing back and forth with different date suggestions? Or maybe it’s a text-only chatbot that enters the conversation with 3 messages every 10 seconds.
And Uber’s chatbot? It’s one quick message request with your location, and a driver responding to confirm. However, users lose an important component of the experience — being able to see where your ride is in real-time. This is key for services like uberPOOL, so unless Uber chatbot is sharing location status through a map widget, they would need to update users with a picture every minute.
Whether you’re getting an Uber, ordering pizza, making plans or finding what movie to watch, tracking is appreciated — but it’s annoying through chat.
Even if a chatbot UI/UX aligns perfectly with a social, consumer facing service, there would still be concerns about centralizing services inside a single chat window. Your service will compete for attention and instruction with other chatbots in a relatively small space — things get cluttered quickly.
Messenger needs to integrate into the existing landscape instead of having those app services create chatbots. It’s a bigger opportunity for Facebook — Messenger Enabled Apps anyone? Chatbots might be perfectly fine in sitting in their own room, minding their own business, waiting for you to give them something to do. But inviting a chatbot into an ongoing conversation is like inviting over that obnoxious friend — you’ll regret calling them the minute they arrive.
