Join us at F8 2017 You must enter your name to sign up. Enter your email address Please enter a valid email address. By submitting this form, you agree to receive marketing-related electronic communications from Facebook, including news, updates, and promotional emails. You may withdraw your consent and unsubscribe from such emails at any time. 3 trends driving the chatbot revolution | VentureBeat | Business | by David Temkin, Cola 3 trends driving the chatbot revolution Above: A picture illustration shows a WeChat app icon. Image Credit: REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic Facebook’s big announcement at its annual F8 Developer conference, was to make Messenger, its 900-million-user messaging app into a full-fledged platform that allows businesses to communicate with users via chatbots. On the surface, that sounds like a standard, if very ambitious, product announcement, taking an already successful product to the next level. But it’s a lot more than that, and it’s worth looking into the three intersecting trends rolled into this one announcement to understand why it’s a big deal, and why the the chatter around chatbots is everywhere.

The three trends: Messaging-as-OS: Messaging can be a platform The app problem: People are reluctant to install apps The “conversational interface”: A new model for interacting with online services Messaging-as-OS What we quaintly call “phones” aren’t used much for phone calls these days. In fact, measured by actual usage, they’re messaging devices; for most users, messaging (texting and all of its more advanced variants) is the core function of the phone, the place they’re focused on most of the time. So: If users are already spending most of their time in messaging apps, and have gotten very comfortable with how messaging works, then why not bring more and more functions right into messaging apps, rather than asking users to pogo-stick from app to app, from site to site? Go where the users already are. Of the three major trends in Facebook’s announcement, this one is standing on the most solid ground, largely because it is the least driven by internal tech industry obsessions.

Not only is messaging demonstrably the center of today’s smartphone usage, but if you look to Asia, you’ll see an alternate set of messaging apps dominating the landscape, all of which do more than their Western competitors, and some of which have a legitimate claim on being a “Messaging OS” right now. Most notable of all is WeChat, an app that’s widely used in China, with 570 millions users and over a million businesses represented in the app. You can use WeChat to chat, of course, but you can also order a meal, book a doctor’s appointment, donate to a charity, and more. Not only can you do these things, but they’re everyday events for users of WeChat. WeChat connects people to people, but also people to businesses, and this has become totally mainstream for users of WeChat. So much so, in fact, that new companies launching online services will sometimes launch first in WeChat, and only afterward produce their own app. That’s why you’ll hear people talk about “the WeChat of the West” — what would it take for people outside of Asia to to use their messaging apps this way? It’s a tricky question.

But despite the fact that WeChat allows people to do way more than chat with other people, WeChat doesn’t force all of these interactions into chats with bots. When you interact with a business in WeChat, much of interaction is done using embedded mobile websites inside the WeChat environment. So you wouldn’t chat with a bot using keywords to book an appointment. Instead you tap your way through a process that closely resembles what you’d do in using the web or a dedicated mobile app; it’s just that you don’t need to leave WeChat to do so, and you don’t need to download a new app or register for a new service to get things done. It happens on-demand inside of WeChat. Solving the app problem Businesses want customers, and customers are mobile. The best way for a customer to interact with a business on a smartphone is generally with an app. But good apps are hard to build, and even harder to get into users’ hands. The average smartphone owner installs zero apps per month, and only uses 5-10 apps regularly . And to add to that, there are around three million apps available across the two major platforms — it’s overwhelming.

People don’t much like loading up their phone with apps, and are tired of trying out the latest-greatest app. So what’s a business to do if it wants to interact with its customers in a mobile world? Some businesses have the scale to develop a custom app and drive it into user’s hands. But many — most — don’t. One of the big attractions of Messenger’s chatbot platform is the idea that customers would be able to interact with a business without downloading an app — or even without the nearly-as-awkward process of going to a website, logging in and, if needed, manually entering payment information. There’s talk of “bot stores” and the idea that there could soon be millions of different bots, just like there are now millions of apps — but they may well prove easier to build, and easier to get in front of users. However, it’s an open question — a very open question — whether bots are an answer to the app problem from the perspective of a user. Can a bot really act as a substitute for an app?

Which leads to… The emergence of the conversational interface This is the the biggest and riskiest idea that Facebook is promoting — the idea that people will want to interact with businesses as if they are people, in conversational format. Two ways to look at this: Retro Futuristic Retro The command line makes a comeback. You might just remember what computers were like before the advent of the GUI. Users would interact with the computer via a command line, which required memorizing a series of often cryptic commands in order to get anything done. To this day, developers tend to interact with computers in this manner, because it can be very powerful and very flexible for those who invest the effort to master the technique. But for normals, it’s an absolute show-stopper, and without the GUI, computers and the Internet would never have taken off. Which brings us to bots. In their simplest variant, a bot offers a classic command line interface. You need to know what words to use in order to get the right response; and instead of making selections from menus and doing all of the usual touch-swipe interaction on a smartphone, you’d have to enter textual commands — specific sets of words, delivered in a specific order — that are known to the bot.

One innovation that Facebook showed at F8 is called structured templates. So when you’re conversing with a bot in Messenger, it might respond to you with something more than plain text. A bot might send you an image with a few tappable options. That might just beat having to interact along the lines of a phone tree (“press one to buy shirt one, two for shirt two…”). Might. It feels like a stretch, or a partial solution that compensates for the lack of a standard graphical interface. Futuristic The real excitement around bots, though, isn’t a drive to restore computing to the glorious command line era. The promise is instead to take a bold leap into the future, in which interacting with a digital service will be more like talking to a person — artificial intelligence in the HAL 9000 sense of the term. What if you didn’t need to use a special vocabulary, and were able to interact with a computer system — a retailer, an airline, a doctor’s scheduling system — using natural language, the way you’d talk if you were talking to a human being? This is the (potential) aspect of bots that’s captured the imagination of the industry.

Now, the promise of intelligent agents doing your bidding via normal conversation is an old dream, going back to the earliest days of sci-fi. Periodically the industry focuses on the subject of AI, and up to this point, each attempt to create conversational agents that can pass as human beings has fallen short. Even with mainstream services like Siri, there’s a giant chasm between the original magical promise and the awkward and not-entirely-useable reality. To put it a different way: How useful would your iPhone be if it didn’t have a screen, and only had Siri? Final Thoughts When you put it all together, a few things become clear. First, Facebook has taken a big leap into a domain that isn’t proven. Conversational interfaces are not something that have yet succeeded in the mass market, and are not something that users are clamoring for. Yes, other messaging platforms (notably WeChat) have gotten very far by integrating many services into messaging, but not by building out bots. Instead, WeChat and similar platforms typically use the proven format of the GUI, in the familiar form of mobile websites embedded in the app.

Facebook and the other industry players pushing conversational interfaces (Microsoft, Amazon) are driving computing into a new era that is at once retro (a command line, or even a phone tree) and simultaneously futuristic (artificial intelligence). But, this is a tech-driven vision, not one driven by a concrete user need or demand. Users aren’t clamoring to book appointments or buy shoes conversationally. And the same is true of the app distribution issue. Users may not like the idea of not having to download apps, but they aren’t saying that they don’t like apps. They love apps. They spend all day in apps of one kind or another (including messaging apps!). Every so often the tech industry gets obsessed with an idea that isn’t driven by concrete user needs or problems. The conversational interface might just be one of them. On the other hand… you never know what kind of innovation will be unleashed by thousands of developers building on a platform that reaches nearly a billion people. We may just be surprised. David Temkin is the CEO and co-founder of Cola , a company that offers a messaging OS to make texting more actionable and efficient.

Ten Big Announcements From Facebook's F8 Developer Conference | NDTV Gadgets360.com Ten Big Announcements From Facebook's F8 Developer Conference Share on Facebook Tweet Share Share Email Reddit Facebook's annual developer conference F8 kicked off in San Francisco on Wednesday, and one of the strongest themes to be repeated through various announcements was consolidation of Facebook as an ecosystem, most clearly highlighted by the idea of the Facebook Messenger platform. Messenger used to be a simple chat app with a few interesting (but hardly revolutionary) features like Chat Heads and stickers. On Wednesday, Facebook unveiled a plan to turn Messenger into a platform for e-commerce, video sharing, and support for a variety of apps. But aside from Messenger, the company also talked about its comments platform, bringing its videos to the wider web, a platform of Internet of Things (IoT) products, and about ad exchanges and app analytics tools - in short, the focus is growing the network outside Facebook, and inside everything else. Altogether, these announcements show how Facebook is transforming itself from just one site with a relatively simple purpose, into a microcosm of the entire Internet. Here are ten things from F8 that are most likely to impact Facebook and the overall Web: 1.

Apps for Facebook Messenger With 600 million users, Facebook Messenger is still behind sister-concern WhatsApp, but now the service is moving to become a platform for e-commerce, video sharing and more. Messenger will integrate with different apps - 40 are planned for a rollout in the next few days - similar to what users have seen with stickers. Facebook Messenger users will be able to use the ESPN app to send sports clips, for example, and other partners include services like The Weather Channel, and JJ Abrams' Bad Robot film production company. 2. Facebook Messenger for businesses Another Facebook Messenger update lets users chat with business while making purchases - this could be used to ask questions about a product, send notifications for things like colour changes after the transaction has been completed, and even complete a purchase if the seller has your payment details. Facebook showed this with online retailers Zulily and Everlane, but the service will expand to businesses beyond retail too Last week, Facebook also announced a peer-to-peer payment system so it's possible that the social network could also end up as the payment gateway for companies that don't have your details, meaning you could ask questions and then complete your purchase, without ever leaving your Facebook Messenger. 3.

Realtime, synced Facebook comments You can use Facebook to allow people to comment on your website, and this is something that a lot of different blogs and other sites have made use of, but the feature has just gotten a major update. The comments on these sites will update in real-time so you don't end up composing an epic reply only to see that someone beat you to it. But that's not the most interesting part. These replies will also sync with the shared post on your Facebook - so commenters can engage with your social media page or your own site, and both Facebook and the publisher will get these comments. This feature is being rolled out as a beta first, with just six publishers including BuzzFeed and Huffington Post. 4. Embeddable Facebook videos Facebook announced that videos uploaded to the network can now be embedded around the Web, putting it in direct competition with YouTube. Earlier, you had to embed the entire post that the video was in, which often looked weird. This won't be possible for all videos - only the ones where the privacy level is set to public will allow this - but it could be a very useful feature for brands, journalists and publishers. 5.

Spherical Videos For Facebook, the changes it is bringing to Messenger and comments are the big news of today, but as we've noted in the past, the company has been diversifying for the future for some time now. One of those moves was its purchase of Oculus VR , the creators of the Oculus Rift . At F8, Facebook announced "Spherical video", which are filmed from multiple cameras and allow you to look around in a video clip. These videos will be accessible on the news feed and you can interact with them using the mouse cursor, but obviously, VR is where something like this will shine. People had been sceptical about Facebook's acquisition of Oculus, but moves like this show how the two can co-exist with scope for further integration. 6. A new Facebook share sheet Facebook also introduced a new share sheet that developers can integrate in their apps to offer a better sharing experience. With the new share sheet, users will be able to tag their Facebook friends or share to Facebook Messenger groups without leaving the third-party app they are using. 7. App invites Facebook has found a lot of traction amongst app developers promoting their apps, and we've all come across promos for different apps on our timeline.

Facebook seems ready to take this to the next level, with App Invites that it hopes will "help people share apps more seamlessly, while driving installs" for developers. These invites will show up in a dedicated section instead of the Facebook News Feed. 8. Parse Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most exciting areas in technology today whose time is just around the corner - unfortunately it has been just around the corner for near a decade now - but one of the things that is holding it back for now is the lack of standards. Facebook announced a platform called Parse which it believes can solve this problem. It's hard to say whether this move will work, but again, it shows how Facebook is trying to invest in technology that will help it stay relevant even when the social network dwindles. 9. Analytics for apps Facebook also announced a free tool that it says will allow developers to understand how people are using their apps across devices. This same tool can also be used to measure effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The free tool makes it easy for developers to understand how people are using their apps across devices, and provides a barometer for the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.

The Facebook mobile team, for example, used these insights to improve the search bar, and after one year the changes it made helped triple the number of mobile searches. 10. LiveRail ad exchange At the end of the day, Facebook is an ad supported service and so you know that the company will focus a lot on this part of the business. Advertising might not be cool, but it's the cornerstone of companies like Facebook, even if they rarely address this in public. The LiveRail ad exchange will allow developers (and Facebook) to make money off mobile display ads. Everything Facebook Announced at its F8 2016 Conference Everything Facebook Announced at its F8 2016 Conference Aadil Shadman 9 months ago Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference is one of the biggest events of the year, especially given how social media is changing our lives in significant ways. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, delivered a keynote speech yesterday which showcased Facebook’s vision of the future. He also listed how Facebook is expanding vigorously in other tech fields as well. Zuckerberg’s F8 2016 keynote was mostly about Facebook’s future and some customer products.

Bots took center stage just like at the Microsoft’s developer conference that was held recently. This was followed by improvements in some customer products, new Facebook features and some new tech coming from the world’s biggest social network. Lets take a look at what Facebook is bringing for its users down the road. Messenger Gets a Bot Platform Facebook is going with bots after many of its competitors did so. Telegram, WeChat, Kik offer it already and Skype just got it. Now its Messenger’s turn to incorporate AI-powered bots for its 900 million users. The company took its sweet time before launching the feature. Even now, it’ll be offered with the newly launched Messenger Beta platform. The developer platform will let businesses, including news companies, create bots which can interact with Messenger users. Bots can send and receive text, images, buttons, bubbles and calls. Facebook showed off a CNN messenger bot which was capable of reading stories, getting summaries and offered an “Ask CNN” command. Zuckerberg says the app will learn from your actions and personalise its algorithms to evolve with time. Facebook Bot Engine The social network announced the beta launch of Bot Engine, a tool which lets developers teach chatbots what to say in specific situations.

Developers can use the Bot Engine along with the Send/Receive API to build Messenger bots. The technology comes from the Messenger’s Wit.AI team. Facebook Live Stream Image Source: Digital Trends Facebook Live is the company’s answer to Meerkat and Periscope . It lets users stream live videos to the social network which, the company hopes, will play a big role in its next growth phase. Live API now supports third-party hardware allowing people to use separate cameras to live stream content. The company has partnered with different manufacturers to build on it and release its own products within the next five years. Internet Beaming Satellite Image Source: Venture Beats During F8 2016, Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s Free Basics program will soon launch its first satellite into orbit in the next few months. According to him, the free internet program is helping more than 25 million people around the world. Facebook has also announced a Free Basics simulator which lets developers test out how their websites would look like when accessed using Free Basics. 360 Degree VR Camera Image Source: Digital Trends The social network just released its Oculus Rift VR headset a few weeks ago. However, it’s not stopping there.

Facebook just revealed its new open-source 360-degree camera which can capture some great quality VR content. The camera boasts 17 cameras and can record 8K video at 60 frames per second. The built-in software automatically stitches the videos together. Being open-source, developers can make their own hardware and software based on the available designs and code. Instant Articles for Everyone Facebook announced a couple of months ago that it was bringing Instant Articles to everyone. WordPress will be getting a plugin which will let publishers export their content to the social network. Instant Articles will be added to user feeds directly and increase reader interactions as a result. Account Kit The social network announced a new software called the Account Kit. Third-party developers can add it to apps, letting their users to sign in to connect with just their phone number or email address – no passwords needed. Save To Facebook Image Source: Venture Beats Save to Facebook will be a new addition to the social network’s portfolio. It will let users add content to a list of things to view later. The button will be visible on websites, and work like Pinterest, Pocket or Digg. Share Quotes Easily Image Source: Venture Beats Sharing quotable quotes have become quite popular on Facebook.

That’s why the company is bringing a new method that will let users clip quotes they like on the web (or e-books) and share them on Facebook in a neat and clean way. Mark’s View on VR and AR Image Source: Digital Trends The founder of Facebook says that virtual reality and augmented reality of the future will be accessible using a gadget not so different from a common pair of glasses. The glasses have been announced as a part of Facebook’s 10 year plan for the future. AR and VR are expected to grow to a $120 billion market by 2020. Vine for Profile Videos Image Source: Digital Trends Facebook is making it much easier for people to replace their profile pictures with profile videos. The ability to upload a 7 second video instead of still pictures has been available since last year. However, users will now be able to upload videos using third-party apps. Vine and Boomerang will be the first two partners with support for the profile video feature on Facebook. Facebook and WhatsApp Beat Regular SMS People use Facebook and WhatsApp to send 60 billion messages every single day, three times more than regular SMS. The figure is a clear indication of the world moving towards online methods of communication rather than the offline ones.

So there you have it folks. Which of these announcements are you excited about? Let us know in the comments below. Tech Trends: New features to Facebook messenger app unveiled at F8 developer tech show | KRON4.com Tech Trends: New features to Facebook messenger app unveiled at F8 developer tech show April 12, 2016, 6:09 pm Updated: Tech Trends: Orders for lower-priced Tesla hit 232,000 SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — F8 is Facebook’s big annual developer tech show. And it’s running now at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Mark Zuckerberg took the stage on Tuesday morning to deliver the keynote address and announce big changes coming to its messenger app. Messenger is Facebook’s fastest growing app. It now has over 900 million users, and they want to take it to the next level. Tech Trends reporter Gabe Slate shows us how in the above video. MORE INFO: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Looking for new ways to engage with its audience, Facebook says people who use its Messenger chat service will soon be able to order flowers, shop for shoes and talk with a variety of businesses by sending them direct text messages.

And soon, if you haven’t “chatted” with those businesses on Messenger in a while, they’ll be able to send you a paid message that offers a special deal or encourages you to buy a product you liked before. CEO Mark Zuckerberg used Facebook’s annual software conference Tuesday to describe its latest initiatives at a time when some reports indicate people may be sharing less personal information on the social network — either because of privacy concerns or the growing appeal of competing apps. Analysts say that underscores the importance for Facebook of adding more features to its growing chat services: It needs to keep people engaged — and continue to learn about their interests for advertising purposes. But Zuckerberg also reiterated Facebook’s goals for connecting people around the world, adding a jab that seemed directed at the likes of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and others who have called for cracking down on immigration and rebuffing refugees. “As I look around the world, I’m starting to see people and nations turning inward,” Zuckerberg said at one point during a keynote speech that mostly focused on new software initiatives.

“I hear fearful voices calling for building walls and distancing people they label as ‘others.’ I hear them calling for blocking free expression, for slowing immigration, for reducing trade, and in some cases even for cutting access to the Internet.” Zuckerberg went on to say he prefers optimism over fear and believes technology should be used “to build bridges” instead of walls. The billionaire tech mogul has previously backed efforts to ease U.S. immigration restrictions and provide more Internet access in developing countries. Most of Zuckerberg’s talk, meanwhile, was focused on new ways that people can use chat services, live video and even virtual reality technology to communicate. With its new emphasis on chatting with businesses, Facebook is joining several tech companies working to promote the use of intelligent software programs known as “chatbots,” which let businesses interact with customers in conversational language. Microsoft recently announced a similar effort with its Skype service, but Facebook appears further along. Facebook already has more than 30 companies signed up to deploy chatbots on Messenger, including major corporations like CNN, eBay, Burger King and Bank of America. Facebook is also releasing programming tools that other companies can use to build their own chatbots for Messenger.

“We think you should just be able to message a business the same way that you message a friend,” Zuckerberg said, noting many people hate the experience of calling businesses on the phone. Facebook is also making it easier for individuals to contact businesses by searching for their bots within Messenger or clicking on an ad in Facebook’s regular news stream. But Vice President David Marcus said the company wants to be careful not to annoy users by filling the Messenger app with unsolicited spam. Facebook is testing a program that charges businesses for the opportunity to send a “sponsored message,” but they’ll only be able to contact people who are existing customers or have already messaged the business, Marcus said. Individuals on Messenger will be able to block future messages from a business at any time. That’s consistent with the conservative approach Facebook has used to gradually introduce paid video ads on its main platform and commercials on its Instagram photo-sharing service. The company doesn’t want to risk driving people away with too many annoying ads, Marcus said. “It’s a very high-quality, personal environment,” he said in an interview. “We want to keep it that way.” The effort comes as more people are embracing the Internet chat service and its competitors.

Messenger now has 900 million active users worldwide, while WhatsApp, another chat service owned by Facebook, claims 1 billion. “More and more of our mobile time is spent within messaging,” said Ken Sena, an investment analyst at Evercore ISI, who examined the apps in a recent report. He’s one of several analysts who say they believe consumers would prefer talking to a business within the messaging app they’re already using, rather than download a separate app and create another user name and password for each business. That’s already a popular model in some Asian countries, where people use China’s WeChat, Japan’s Line and other texting services to schedule doctor’s appointments, pay for meals, order merchandise or send gifts to their friends. Facebook Inc. is also releasing a host of other tools for developers to build apps that work with its services, including software for streaming video from drones and other gadgets. The new video push is part of Facebook’s effort to compete against Twitter, SnapChat, YouTube and other rivals that are also vying to serve video-hungry viewers.

Tech Trends: Facebook shows new ways to chat, stream video View as list Messenger Chatbots Likely To Top The Agenda At Facebook's F8 This Week | Fast Company | Business + Innovation Messenger Chatbots Likely To Top The Agenda At Facebook's F8 This Week Amazon's Holiday Shipping Rush Brings Growing Pains Milk Makeup Jumps Into The Crowded Market Of Edgy Cosmetics Brands The Founders Of Sweetgreen Are Building A Farm-To-Counter Empire, One Bowl At A Time Updates From Our Most Innovative Companies Daniel Terdiman 04.11.16 11:30 AM When more than 2,000 people descend on San Francisco this week for Facebook's annual two-day F8 developers conference , their discussions and decisions will have a huge impact on how you and 1.59 billion other people around the world use the social network. Topping the bill, by all accounts, is the company’s foray into chatbots that allow users to order products directly through Messenger. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be the main keynote speaker on Tuesday, talking at length about the current and near future of Facebook’s products. Day two will feature a keynote by CTO Mike Schroepfer on the company’s innovation path.

In addition to Messenger, hot topics at F8 are likely to include Live Video, virtual reality—since the company owns Oculus VR, which last month launched its highly anticipated Rift headset —and 360-degree video, instant articles, monetizing apps, new areas of improvement in Facebook’s attempts at bringing connectivity to the developing world, and much more. Over the course of the two-day event, developers will have their pick of dozens of special sessions on topics ranging from virtual reality capture technology, Facebook Pages, building tools for those with 2G devices and connectivity, News Feed, advertising on Facebook and Instagram, and much more. Facebook will unveil a new chatbot system for Messenger at F8, tools that could be the next generation of 1-800 numbers, reports TechCrunch. The idea is that chatbots, along with live chat between customers and customer service, could be integrated directly into Messenger, which is used by more than 900 million people every month. The step would follow on the company’s Messenger news that dominated last year’s F8, when it announced the Messenger platform , allowing developers to integrate the communication tool’s features directly into their iOS and Android apps.

The idea now is that "Chatbot providers will help businesses build automated response systems for fielding messages from potential customers," notes TechCrunch. "Instead of having to develop the complex technologies themselves, or fumble around the Internet trying to find someone who can help, they’ll be able to easily find" Facebook-approved developers. Among the early companies to integrate the chatbots could be 1-800-Flowers, which could use the system to reach out directly to past customers about upcoming family holidays, reports the Wall Street Journal . Facebook would not be the first to implement such tools into a messaging platform. Others, such as Microsoft, Skype, Slack, WeChat, and Kik, to name a few, have already taken steps down that path. Google, too, is thought to be working on such a system. 360 And Live Video, Instant Articles, And More Both Facebook and YouTube have been touting the 360-degree capabilities of their video tools in recent months.

Given that millions of people now have access to VR headsets—starting with Google Cardboard on the low end and continuing up to mid-range systems like Samsung’s Gear VR and high-quality systems like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive —it’s no wonder that there’s such interest in 360 video, which allows users to see around them in all directions. While it’s not clear if Facebook will be announcing any news related to 360 video at F8, there’s no doubt a tremendous amount of interest in the topic. Developers at the event will be able to take in two separate sessions on VR video , and tech gadfly Robert Scoble said recently he expects both Facebook and YouTube to offer live 360 video within "months." That could happen within a matter of weeks, sources tell Fast Company. Just last week, Facebook introduced changes intended to get more people to use its live video feature. That means the company may not address the topic at F8. Then again, the Journal notes, it may have more to say on the matter. Facebook has also said that during F8 it plans to open its Instant Articles program , first unveiled last year with select publishers like the New York Times, to all publishers.

None of this would be possible, of course, without the thousands of people who conceive of, and create, tools for Facebook. It’s notable that this week’s F8 comes on the heels of Facebook shutting down Parse, a system the tech giant bought in 2013 that helped developers build apps. Many developers are unhappy about Parse’s shuttering , and this will be the first time those people will have the opportunity to confront Facebook about its decision. Some, wrote the San Francisco Chronicle, are hesitant to commit to building tools for Facebook given what happened to Parse. Still, that sentiment will surely be in the minority as the thousands of developers who flock to F8 look to cash in on Facebook’s monumental global reach. Please tune in to Fast Company’s live blogs of both Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s keynotes, as well as our other F8 coverage from San Francisco this week. Never miss a story. Facebook opens up Messenger to apps FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Facebook opens up Messenger to apps Facebook is opening up Messenger to third-party apps. CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement at F8, Facebook's conference for software developers. Post to Facebook Facebook opens up Messenger to apps Facebook is opening up Messenger to third-party apps.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement at F8, Facebook's conference for software developers. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 3 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Facebook opens up Messenger to apps Jessica Guynn , USA TODAY Published 1:23 p.m. ET March 25, 2015 | Updated 7:44 p.m. ET March 26, 2015 CLOSE x Share F8, Facebook's annual conference, brings together thousands of developers to showcase new features, most notably allowing third party developers to now access their Messenger feature. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg 239 CONNECT TWEET 20 LINKEDIN 3 COMMENTEMAILMORE SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is opening up Messenger to third-party apps. CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement Wednesday at F8, Facebook's conference for software developers. Zuckerberg called it an "exciting, big new area and opportunity for Facebook." The giant social network is mining the potential of its popular messaging service to extend beyond text messaging to new forms of expression.

App developers will be able to bring "rich new ways" to have conversations on Messenger, Zuckerberg said. Messenger Platform will offer more than 40 new apps so that people can add GIFs, photos, videos and audio clips to their conversations. (Photo: Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY) By giving people new ways to interact on Messenger, Facebook is hoping to keep their attention from wandering to rival mobile services. One of the new apps on Messenger is Ditty, which sings personal messages to friends in the melody of famous songs. Users type up to 70 characters, select a track such as Counting Stars or Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Ditty generates a personalized lyric, according to Zya, the company that created the app. Facebook also announced Businesses on Messenger, which lets users have personal conversations with businesses. For example, after buying something from a website, users can choose to get updates such as order confirmations and shipping status, or ask questions of the business all in a single thread. Last week Facebook announced a new feature that lets friends send each other money for free via Messenger. Messenger has 600 million users. WhatsApp, the popular messaging service Facebook bought for $22 billion, has 700 million users.

Increasingly Messenger and WhatsApp are competing with the likes of not just Snapchat but China's WeChat (owned by Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings), Japan's Line and South Korea's Kakao Talk. Those services, which are a combination of an instant messaging app and social network, are used by hundreds of millions in Asia and other parts of the globe to make voice calls, play games, share photos, read entertainment or sports news, summon a taxi, and buy movie tickets or virtual goods such as emoji or stickers. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addresses software developers at the start of his company's F8 conference in San Francisco, Calif., Wednesday March 25, 2015. Eric Risberg, AP Facebook Product Management Director Deborah Liu speaks at the F8 summit. Josh Edelson, AFP/Getty Images Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the F8 summit. Josh Edelson, AFP/Getty Images Facebook's Parse cofounder and chief executive Ilya Sukhar speaks at the F8 summit. Josh Edelson, AFP/Getty Images People line up outside a pavillion at Fort Mason to hear CEO Mark Zuckerberg deliver the keynote address at the Facebook F8 Developer Conference.

Eric Risberg, AP People leave the Herbst Pavillion at Fort Mason after hearing CEO Mark Zuckerberg deliver the keynote address at the Facebook F8 Developer Conference. Eric Risberg, AP Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a Q&A session on his Facebook page on Tuesday. Here he addresses software developers at the start of his company's F8 conference in San Francisco on March 25, 2015. Chris Wiggins for USA TODAY Facebook shares are soaring into record territory on investor confidence in the 11-year-old company's advertising business. Analysts predict Facebook's revenue will rise 37% this year, to $17.1 billion. The company's 12-month price target: $91.57. KAren Bleier, AFP/Getty Images Facebook acquired the virtual-reality start-up Oculus for $2 billion. Sean Gallup, Getty Images Facebook has spent nearly $25 billion the past three years on mobile-messaging service WhatsApp. Gabriel Bouys, AFP/Getty Images "Facebook is multiple apps and businesses across mobile, ad tech and virtual reality," says Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at eMarketer.

"It is so much more now." Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images Facebook added a feature to its popular Messenger app that lets people send money to friends. The feature is free, but analysts see potential for money-making down the road. iTunes Like this topic? You may also like these photo galleries: Replay F8: Latest News, Photos, Videos on F8 - NDTV.COM News Alerts News Flash Old notes worth more than Rs 5,000 can be deposited only once per account until December 30, says Finance Ministry F8 Ravi Sharma | Tuesday November 8, 2016 Moto M became official in China today, while Lenovo Phab Plus and Lyf F8 launched in India. Lyf F8 Launched in India: Price, Specifications, and More Shekhar Thakran | Tuesday November 8, 2016 Budget-end smartphone Lyf F8 with 4G VoLTE support is now available at retail stores across India at Rs. 4,199.

Facebook Will Soon Start Automatically Tagging Your Friends in Videos Ketan Pratap | Thursday April 14, 2016 Facebook also revealed its AI-powered Talking pictures feature which will allows it to identify individual objects in the image as well as their relation. Gopal Sathe | Wednesday April 13, 2016 Facebook's annual developer conference has a heavy emphasis on virtual reality, augmented reality, and chatbots. Why Apple, Google Should Be Worried About Facebook's New Bots Store Elizabeth Dwoskin, The Washington Post | Wednesday April 13, 2016 In 2016, Alan Turing's ghost has come to haunt Silicon Valley - companies are racing to build technology that can talk with you. Facebook Unveils Surround 360, an Open Source 360-Degree 3D Video Camera Indo-Asian News Service | Wednesday April 13, 2016 Built for $30,000, this black circular camera has a disk-shaped spaceship-like design that has 17 evenly spaced lenses.

Facebook Unveils 360-Degree 3D Video Camera At F8 Developer Conference World News | Indo-Asian News Service | Wednesday April 13, 2016 Taking the video recording to a next level, social media giant Facebook unveiled its own 360-degree stereoscopic 3D video camera at the two-day F8 developer conference underway at the Fort Mason in San Francisco, California. Agence France-Presse | Wednesday April 13, 2016 "We are committed to innovation that helps organizers sell more tickets." Facebook Brings 'Chatbots' to Messenger Agence France-Presse | Wednesday April 13, 2016 "We think you should be able to text message a business like you would a friend, and get a quick response." Facebook Launches WordPress Plugin for Instant Articles Indo-Asian News Service | Tuesday March 8, 2016 Instant Articles will be opened to all publishers at Facebook's F8 conference in San Francisco on April 12.

Facebook Messenger Gets Spotify Integration; Upcoming Features Tipped Robin Sinha | Friday March 4, 2016 The company at the F8 annual developer conference may announced that it will let publishers share content via Facebook Messenger. Reuters | Saturday March 28, 2015 Facebook said the Oculus headset will be released "before long," but did not provide a time frame. WhatsApp Voice Calling for iPhone Coming in 'Couple of Weeks': Co-Founder Ketan Pratap | Friday March 27, 2015 Speaking at the Facebook F8 conference, Brian Acton unfortunately did not reveal a more precise time-frame for the rollout. Ten Big Announcements From Facebook's F8 Developer Conference NDTV Correspondent | Thursday March 26, 2015 At its annual developer conference, the social network quietly made a number of announcements that taken together give us a glimpse of the future of Facebook - and the Web.

Jaguar Helps Design Tour De France Racing Bike Tuesday June 3, 2014 We all know Jaguar for being a car maker who for generations has delivered race winning cars but now the company has joined forces with Italian bicycle builder Pinarello to build the new Pinarello Dogma F8 bicycle. Five things that could change Facebook after F8 Read More Chatbots rise, and the future may be 're-written' 1. Chatbots Perhaps the most buzzed-about announcement expected from F8 is rollout of a chatbot — a robot, powered by artificial intelligence, that you communicate with on Facebook's Messenger app. Rather than launch an additional app to book a flight or hail a car, one could theoretically chat up a bot to do the task in an more "natural" way of communication, USA Today reported . That could mean spending even more time on Facebook — talking to businesses, to boot. Canadian messaging app Kik is among apps that have already launched "bot shops" with partners like H&M and Sephora. Read More Zuck tries Facebook Live ... doesn't go well 2.

Live Video app Bots or no bots, Facebook already showed its big investment in live video last week, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself took to the airwaves, debuting features to make it easier for users to find and share clips. There may even be an announcement of a standalone video app at F8, Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter wrote in a Thursday research note. Despite a rocky start, it wasn't long before Live Video was heralded as the "future of TV" thanks to an exploding watermelon streamed by Buzzfeed last Friday. What does that mean for developers? A platform that's more competitive with Alphabet' s YouTube and Twitter 's Periscope, according to Schachter. "With the recently launched features for Facebook Live along with potential new video experiences, we expect video on (and possibly off-FB) to remain one of the most important areas for FB," Schachter wrote. Read More The future of TV: 800K watch a watermelon explode 3. Message my business While Live Video was busy stealing the spotlight, Facebook quietly broke out some new features aimed at small business owners last week. Business pages now have usernames with "@" signs similar to those used for tagging friends.

These usernames will give each page a unique identity and allow users to interact with the business owners via Facebook's Messenger app, the company said in a release Thursday. Other updates include a feature called Messenger Links and Codes, where business can share a clickable link or scannable QR-like codes that open a Messenger conversation with the business. It's all tied to Facebook's push toward eCommerce, Schachter wrote, likely to be expanded at F8's sessions. Read More Why the NFL went to Twitter instead of Facebook 4. DIY virtual reality Though virtual reality has been an ancillary business for Facebook, the Oculus-owner boasts several VR sessions on the technology at F8. And Schachter said he expects partnership announcements, starting with sports and entertainment companies, to emerge from the conference. "We expect FB to say it's still early days, but to start to focus on allowing users to generate their own VR content," Schachter wrote. "This will be the first large FB event post Oculus launch and we expect the focus to shift from hardware to the software/content for the platform." 5. Payment app While you can send peer-to-peer payments, and pay your Uber via Messenger, Facebook has yet to venture into in-person transactions.

But that could be the next step for Facebook to face-off against fellow tech-titan Apple , Rosenblatt Securities analyst Martin Pyykkonen told Investor's Business Daily . It's an opinion bolstered by reports by investigative technology blog The Information . "We expect the F8 pitch will include Facebook's Messenger app pushing further into a wide variety of business and consumer services," Pyykkonen wrote in a note cited by IBD. "We are especially focused on Facebook's developer direction with mobile payments within the Messenger app." show chapters Facebook slates f8 developer conference for September - Aug. 25, 2011 Print At f8 2010, held last April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the universal "like" button and a new social paradigm called "Open Graph," featuring integration with more than 30 content partners. At the time, Facebook had 400 million active members. It now has 750 million. Any time Facebook's key developers and a gaggle of press gather for one of Zuckerberg's keynotes -- which he always deliverers casually attired in one of his signature hoodies -- there's intense speculation about what the social network's next move will be.

This year, developers will be especially attuned for news around Facebook Credits, Facebook's in-app native currency that's fast becoming a multi-million-dollar virtual economy . Attendees will also be chatting about IPO plans for Facebook , which is poised to its either go public or begin disclosing its financial results in early 2012 . First Published: August 25, 2011: 1:49 PM ET Related Articles Google+ Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer . Morningstar: © 2016 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2016. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN.

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Question: What large corporation's annual conference is called 'f8'?
Answer: Facebook