Having concluded its Facebook for Developers conference, the social platform is set to roll out a number of new developer tools, including several messaging features for businesses.
The event, tagged “F8 Refresh”, is Facebook’s first software developer event since 2019, as the company decided to postpone the conference due to last year’s Covid-19 pandemic.
This year, Facebook focused on new tools that will help businesses communicate with their consumers directly through its messaging services.
“This is a key focus for Facebook, which is seeking to enable more e-commerce transactions directly on its services and enable businesses to handle more of their customer support via Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram,” a reporter at CNBC mentioned.
Businesses who use Facebook as a marketing tool turned in virtually, and below are key announcements as shared by CNBC.
1). Messenger API for Instagram
Facebook announced that all businesses will now have access to the application program interface, or API, for messaging on Instagram. This will make it easier for businesses to automate and manage direct message communication with users. For instance, businesses could create automatic responses or workflows for common consumer questions or requests such as “What’s your return policy?” or “Please track my order” before a chat with a live representative begins.
Already, these types of tools exist for businesses to message folks via WhatsApp or Messenger, but now, they will also be able to build similar messaging experiences on Instagram.
2). WhatsApp improvements for business communication
Facebook also announced a number of new features for WhatsApp. These include list messages, which allow businesses to provide consumers with a menu of up to ten options as they communicate. The company also announced “Reply” buttons, which give users the ability to choose pre-written responses (or replies) as they communicate with businesses.
The company also announced faster onboarding for its WhatsApp Business API so businesses can get set up to start messaging with consumers quickly – in minutes to be precise. The process used to take weeks.
3). Multi-person augmented reality
As part of its effort to enable more augmented-reality features for users, Facebook on Wednesday announced its Multipeer API beta program. This technology will make it possible for software developers to create AR effects that work synchronously for multiple users at the same time.
So, for example, users could hop on a group video call over Messenger and apply an AR filter built using the Multipeer API. That filter would then apply to all of the participants on the video call. A demonstration showed four people in a video call, all wearing virtual party hats to celebrate a birthday together while in different locations.
“Long-term, these foundational capabilities will underpin the content you’ll see overlaid in the AR glasses we’re building,” tweeted Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, Facebook’s head of hardware.
