On September 12th, Facebook announced the release of the latest version of the Messenger Platform.
They celebrated Messenger’s growth, including more than 34,000 developers and 30,000 bots and unveiled a handful of new features that will be rolling out over the coming month.
One of the biggest features is a capability to open up Messenger as a call to action in Facebook ads.
When creating a News Feed ad, you can add Messenger as a “website clicks objective” destination.
You can create a custom call to action or keep things simple with a straightforward “Send Message” button. Users who click on the ad will be taken to a chat screen in Messenger. You can also customize a “welcome message” that users will see when they open up the chat screen. The new feature could help introduce more people to using Messenger as a way to communicate with their favorite brands.
Facebook is also working to incorporate more advanced UI elements directly into Messenger, as a simple text conversation is often not enough.
They are testing mobile websites that can be customized to work right within the Messenger app.
Facebook is also testing payment options. This feature is still in beta right now, but in the future it will allow customers to save their payment information using secure encryption, and then they will be able to make payments directly within Messenger.
Once this feature is rolled out to all brands, it will theoretically enable Messenger to cover the entire customer process, from greeting to checkout.
If you have a Messenger bot, you’ll now be able to create a welcome screen for it. This screen features a mini bio, which you can customize with information such as what help or services your bot can provide. The welcome screen will also include your bot’s response time and category.
So far, Messenger has been making small waves in the online marketing world. As the app develops more robust tools, those waves might start getting bigger.
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Written by content manager Meghan Woolley
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