The Power of Messenger

Here is some great insight from the head of Facebook Messenger, David Marcus provided in this article from NBC. These guys are ambitious and we love what they are trying to do!

Facebook Messenger is aiming to become your default messaging app.

CNBC asked Facebook’s VP of messaging, David Marcus, if the company wants to replace the default messaging apps on iPhone and Android.

“By all means, yes,” Marcus said. “Absolutely.”

To get there, Facebook is adding new features such as locations, polls and third-party experiences, like sharing music through Spotify, buying tickets through Fandango or posting recipes from Food Network.

“Conversations tend to stick on Messenger because the next best alternative is not as good,” Marcus said.

Facebook can also help bridge conversations between Apple and Android users because it works the same way on all platforms — unlike the telltale green text bubble that pops up on iMessage whenever it receives a message from an Android device.

“That’s my personal crusade,” said Marcus. “If we can over the next three years build a habit of people to search on Messenger for businesses they need to interact with, create all kinds of entry points outside of Messenger to bring in those people, and the experience is so much better than a 1–800 call or email or any of the other ways of communicating with businesses, I think that would be a huge transformation for people.”

Younger users haven’t yet become accustomed to telephoning companies for customer service, and Messenger can help train them toward using chat first, Marcus pointed out.

Telephoning “is not what (young people) want to do,” he said. “The way they communicate with friends, it’s not like they’re calling them anymore. They’re just chatting with them all the time on Messenger and other platforms.”

The messaging experience can save time and create a better experience for customers, as well as lower costs for companies, he said.

Originally published at NORSK BOTS . NO.