News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Microsoft Bot Framework. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft Bot Framework by vincent_s on Thursday March 31, 2016 @01:22AM (#11395158)
Chatbots are the new apps.

Chatbots are a way to integrate other services into WhatsApp/FB, Slack, etc. China's WeChat is setting the trend here [1]. You can do things like payments, online shopping, order a pizza/taxi/whatever with just a simple text message.

WhatsApp will be offering a paid API soon that will make Chatbots available within WhatsApp and thus make all the above possible.

As a result, messengers like WhatsApp will become a platform. Instead of having to install an app for every service you just add a contact to your messenger and text him what you want.

[1] https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-social-commerce-chinaccele...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Bot Framework by MzHN on Thursday March 31, 2016 @07:39AM (#11396386)
>WhatsApp will be offering a paid API soon that will make Chatbots available within WhatsApp and thus make all the above possible.

Is that a wild guess, or sourced somewhere?

Anyway, with Microsoft releasing this, and supported apps such as Telegram already having a bot API, this does put a lot of pressure on WhatsApp.

[ Parent | on HN ]