Why do we talk so much about messaging platforms? Because now messages have become the new frontier of communication and smartphones the future of interaction. Over 2.5 billion people have installed at least one messaging application on their personal device.
These represent immediate and spontaneous communication, features that are needed to intrigue and therefore involve the user. This type of communication aims to create a close, trusting relationship with the brand.
That’s why we propose an overview of the most used messaging platforms.
Facebook Messenger
Messenger is an application made available some years ago by the giant of social networks. It’s free and available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
But what’s the difference between the simple and old chat of blue social networks and Messenger?
Chat allows you to communicate with all FB friends individually or in groups, make our status available to some friends and not available to others, delete the chronology and all the classic chat functions.
The Facebook Messenger app, as well as offering chat services, such as Facebook, allows you to make voice calls (via VoIP), send voicemails and SMS to phone numbers (even those not on Facebook).
Today simple chat is no longer enough to handle the enormous flow of users and their requests: for this ever-growing number of need management, bots are born!
The bot for Facebook Messenger, in fact, is a program that lets you automate interactions with a subject. Thanks to a code, and thus to chat-bots, you can interact and manage the customer care service automatically, without human presence.
However: why you have a chat-bot Messenger?
The decisive aspect is the sale. With Facebook Messenger bots, you can capture customers more easily and with less effort than the expensive “human” interaction (in terms of time and money)!
We propose an example in our view explanatory.
You decide to go out for dinner. So start internet search of a nice restaurant, read some reviews about it, take the address and book it. But a member of your group is celiac and forgot to check if they offer a gluten free service. At this point you decide to write a message on the Facebook page of the place and… at this stage the response times become fundamental! If you have a bot the answer will be immediate; if you don’t have a bot, response times will be variable and probably not instantaneous, and this can become a major disadvantage.
Facebook makes available all the necessary tools to create a bot, making the operation relatively simple – click here if you want to view the official guide. The tricky part it’s actually about the strategy to be followed: if you want a personalized product you should contact industry experts, who can handle your needs by bringing them back to the chat-bot.
That’s why you can turn to us, we are here for this 🙂 .
Telegram
Defined as the encrypted alternative to WhatsApp, Telegram is a similar app that uses encryption protocols to protect communication flows between users and secret chats.
Thanks to an open source communication protocol, Telegram minimizes the amount of bytes sent for each message. This is a great first advantage, as it allows you to send and receive messages faster, even in poor reception.
Another peculiarity of this platform is the secret chat, along with the self-deleting function. This means setting a time to show the message to the recipient: once this is read and the time elapsed will expire, the message will automatically be destroyed.
Other characterizing tools are groups, channels and bots.
Group chat lets you create discussion groups (with up to 200 participants) on promotions or event programs.
Another option is the channels with which you can collect a list of subscribers who choose to subscribe to receive their updates. Among the benefits we have is: knowing how many users have viewed each single message and measuring the level of community interaction.
Further novelties in Telegram are:
- launch of video messaging;
- payments, through BOT;
- new Quick Start feature, which allows you to open articles on websites outside Telegram (as if they were Facebook’s Instant Articles). This allows users to monitor how many megabytes they consume by downloading photos and videos from the messaging application. All data is divided by category, giving you the ability to keep track of your tariff plan.
Then there is the bot area. Thanks to the bot you can:
- automating responses and sending information;
- manage the FAQ area, to provide users with immediate feedback about purchasing or using a product.
Telegram’s bots are accounts that allow you to interact with pre-set messages created by the bot creator and receive responses. For example, you can send a word to search for and receive information about it (ex: weather). Once the bot’s chat is open, just press Start to use it.
KIK Messenger
Used especially by young people, Kik Messenger is a free instant messaging platform, compatible with Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile operating systems. Unlike Telegram, in Kik you don’t need to register by phone number, but only by first name and surname and then choose a username: this allows you to access the chats in an almost anonymous manner. The ability to authenticate without entering the phone number makes it less secure than most known competitors, such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
Also, Kik messages are encrypted only when they are in transit to service servers, so potential attackers may access their content.
The app allows you to create chat, public or private, between contact groups, and manage them through the #hastag, Twitter style.
In a chat, messages are marked differently by a letter, depending on:
– “R”, have been read by the recipients;
– “D”, have been delivered;
– “S”, have been sent to the server.
Unlike other messaging services, Kik has its own app store, where you can free download, or buy apps and games to interact with other users. You can access the store via the planet Earth icon, located at the top right of the home.
Another store is available on the application, the Bot Shop, which suggests bot as needed. This will make it easy to find new bots to add and use on the platform. Among the best known, Sephora. View the video to fully understand bots’ capabilities on Kik!
Skype
Skype is a free instant messaging program that allows you to talk, video chat, chat and send media. All this is possible only when you are online and they are also your contacts.
It is available for all platforms: for fixed and portable computers, you can download from the Skype site; for smartphones and tablets you can download it through app store.
As a first step you need to create an account, so:
- enter your email address to retrieve the password in case of loss;
- create a username and password: these credentials will be required whenever you want to access your Skype profile from any device;
- create its address book exchanging your username with the desired contacts.
Otherwise, you can access with the Facebook profile.
Also in Skype we find the Bot section.
With bots companies can improve conversations with their customers, possibly getting an economic gain. They can be used both in one-to-one chats and in group conversations. You can chat with a Skype bot to chill out, play, get recipes, plan trips and more.
Slack
Defined as an “email killer“, Slack is a team messaging platform that integrates multiple communication channels into a single service. It is growing fast and is expected to become more and more competitive on other platforms, aiming to make day-to-day work more efficient. In each channel of communication, slang Channels, users can upload different types of documents: reports, images, charts and anything else needed to advance a work project.
Getting started with Slack is simple: just go to Slack.com, create your own team by clicking Create a new team and enter your email address. At this point you will receive a 6-digit confirmation code in the e-mail, which you can enter in the registration page, then you can proceed with the name and last name, the username and password. The next step will be to invite your colleagues email.
You can also sync your Gmail account to have direct mail and file access in Google Drive; Skype profile to make video calls; and the GitHub platform, to cooperate more quickly with software development.
It can be used on various devices, computers, smartphones and tablets, supports various platforms: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS.
Also in Slack there is room Bot. To access the app and bot market you have to click on “App & Integrations” and you will be redirected to the dedicated market to choose the most appropriate services for your needs. The category selected will open a list of available services, which can be installed via the “Install” button.
Bots from the beginning include Slackbot, for exchanging notifications between Slack staff at teams and providing support in case of misuse.
There are many available bots, including:
Meekan Scheduling Assistant, designed to handle appointments and meetings, compare team members’ commitments and find the right time to place a meeting, send appointment reminders;
Polly, specially designed for surveys, is very useful for creating your poll in seconds and look at the latest real-time results directly in Slack.
The opportunities in Slack’s market are really large, we suggest you take a look by clicking here!
“We love. We Share. WeChat”. With these words, sponsored by Messi (yes, he is the soccer champion Lionel Messi), the world has come to know WeChat, a completely free messenger application, halfway between a Chat and a Social Network that allows of:
- create group conversations;
- create live chat, a kind of multiple Walkie Talkie that makes conversations more immediate and fun;
- send text messages, voice and video;
- share photos, texts and URLS;
- customize backgrounds.
The app is available for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Phone operating systems. It is also usable by PC.
An innovation than the other messaging platforms is the ability to write a message and launch it “globally”, waiting for someone in the world to receive it and decide to respond: a kind of “message in the bottle” designed to meet new users, add them to their own list and expand the circle of “friends”.
The creators of WeChat were among the first to exploit the chat-bots. We can find these smart chats in almost all e-Commerce, provide FAQ to customers, and some magazines, to search for specific areas.
Although it is the message exchange service with multiple subscribers, along with Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp doesn’t offer the chance to release BOT.
However, it remains a very well-used platform with more than 1.2 billion active users.
Allows you to send text messages and voice messages, share photos, videos and documents – all through the Internet.
It is compatible with Android, iOS and Windows Phone. It can also be used on PC, but exclusively via smartphones: you need to open WhatsApp web, scan the code via your phone, as needed, and the application will be manageable by your monitor!
When you write a message, this will be displayed with different icons at the bottom of the RH with respect to the text, depending on the status of the message:
– a small clock is meant to indicate that the message is being sent;
– a gray check indicates that the message was successfully sent;
– a double blue check indicates the recipient’s reading of the message.
NB: blue checks and last access display have a reciprocal relationship, which means that if you disable them (option that can be managed by settings) other users will no longer see you if you have read the message or time of your last login, but you will not even be able to see the information of your friends.
Let’s get to it.
At the moment of the Internet users have started to spend much more time on instant messaging platforms than on the Social Network, Bot has thought of it as a successful tool for interfacing with any kind of service.
From “simple” means of entertainment have become powerful communication tools, at the service of users (including companies)!
There is still a long way to go and today the bots are not yet able to replace any human interaction, but … we are working for you 🙂 .
