How to Quickly Improve your Chatbot’s Retention & Engagement

Great overview that essentially comes down to this: bots need to solve a problem, a pain point, and if you’re looking for benchmarks, comparing to apps in the same category is a good place to start. What we like about this, and concurrently what we appreciate about Facebook’s restrictions, is bots really can’t be spammy. What an interesting moment for marketing, eh? Like taking away their favorite toy and seeing how else they can entertain themselves...🎁

How Chatbots Will Evolve In One Simple Flowchart (Infographic)

Could this be an oversimplification? Yes. But do we appreciate it anyway? Absolutely. Love the way it breaks down rules-based vs. NLP-laden bots, the realities around what it takes to achieve, and that either case can be just as effective. Feels like there should be even more forks, especially for actually executing (e.g. build yourself, use a platform, etc.), but cool nonetheless! 

Facebook just secured an e-money license in Ireland, paving the way for Messenger payments in Europe

Exciting news for European bot creators! Will be interesting to see how/if Facebook will delve into currency exchange (Europe, amirite?). We’re a Beta partner for the US Facebook Payments so pretty much anything payments related is exciting to us--what will the world do with true frictionless payments?! 💸

Pinned Chats and IFTTT Integrations

Ah, the march towards a world of eagerly subservient bots continues! We’re pretty excited about this (some more than others as only 2 of our team members are active Telegram users). This backs up our general thought that bots are meant to expedite services, not mimic humans…

Kia May Be Way Behind Electric Wave with Niro, But NiroBot Gives Brand Some Leadership

We’re very proud to share this bot that was created in Reply.ai platform for Kia--the auto industry’s first foray into the chat-o-sphere. Using api.ai and reply.ai, it’s a great mix of NLP + visual UI. Let us know what you think of it--part of a greater movement towards the “botification of all FAQ!”

Mall of America Bot

Bot that helps you get around the largest mall in the USA. Because it is a hilarious joke that anyone will download an app for that. 

Here Comes Santa Bot

Kinda hate this one. It’s a bot for kids to chat with Santa. Facebook is 13+ so this is at best flagrant violation of Facebook policy, at worst a sad state of parenting. Bah humbug. 🎅👎