Facebook has announced the launch of a brand new chat plugin for its Messenger app. The plugin will allow people to chat directly with businesses on their own websites through Facebook Messenger.
This is not an entirely new thing though. There are many chat plugins specifically developed for business websites.
However, Facebook Messenger will have one big advantage - and that is its massive reach. In other words, through Facebook Messenger, businesses will now be able to communicate and engage with customers through an application that has over 1.2 billion users. There is no other chat plugin out there that can offer this.
The Messenger platform supports many other features including payments, rich media, etc. The website plugin will be launched as a beta version first. The social media giant notes that the web-based plugin will come with almost the same features as the original mobile app. However, the company said that it will add new features in the future.
When a customer begins a chat session with any business using the web-based Messenger plugin, the same interface they are used to with the Messenger mobile app will be presented. Even if the customer is no longer on the website, as long as the conversation was started, they can continue to engage with the business using the Messenger app on their phone or tablet. This will be a very useful feature especially in cases where the business may not respond instantly to messages sent via chat.
As for businesses that already have a huge following on Facebook, the new web-based plugin promises to make communication easier. As part of modern business practice, we have seen a significant number of businesses offering customer support through Facebook and other social media platforms. With the web-based Messenger plugin, businesses will still continue to engage with customers through Facebook but this time they will not need to maintain a separate support channel on social media. Everything can be done on the main website.
For the last few months, Facebook has been trying to leverage the popularity of the Messenger platform to target businesses. This year, the social media giant introduced discovery mechanisms designed to find Messenger bots easily.
The company also ran a series of ad tests for its Messenger platform. Facebook felt that there is an opportunity for businesses to reach the billions of users in the platform through specific ads including offers to shop and chat. The launch of the web-based Messenger plugin is yet another strategy to target businesses.
A number of major Facebook partners have already begun trials for the beta version of the plugin. These include basically some of the biggest companies in the world like KLM, Keto Mojo, Aviva, Air France, AdoreMe, Bodeaz, Argos, Volaris, Spoqa, Zalando, and Total Activation. Facebook has also urged other companies interested in using the web plugin to sign up so they can be notified when the plugin becomes available for everyone.
