Re:Building a chatbot on Facebook Messenger with Ruby on Rails
by pmontra on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @10:28AM
(#14203242)
I assume we're talking about chatbots on phones.
For the users the advantage is that they don't have to install anything. The disadvantage is that it's a more crude UI than a full fledged app or a modern mobile website but that can be hidden by a good design.
However a conversational UI mostly flows in time with little memory (scrolling and searching are possible but not user friendly), whilst apps/desktop/websites mostly spread in a 2D space. The design of the interaction is very different. Just try some mockup tools for chatbots and you'll find it out quickly.
There are advantages for developers too: it's easier to develop a chatbot than an app (unless you go very deep in AI), as much as it was to develop a web app than a desktop one. It costs less, it delivers earlier, it can be updated 100 times per day without app store approvals.
For the users the advantage is that they don't have to install anything. The disadvantage is that it's a more crude UI than a full fledged app or a modern mobile website but that can be hidden by a good design.
However a conversational UI mostly flows in time with little memory (scrolling and searching are possible but not user friendly), whilst apps/desktop/websites mostly spread in a 2D space. The design of the interaction is very different. Just try some mockup tools for chatbots and you'll find it out quickly.
There are advantages for developers too: it's easier to develop a chatbot than an app (unless you go very deep in AI), as much as it was to develop a web app than a desktop one. It costs less, it delivers earlier, it can be updated 100 times per day without app store approvals.
Edit: s/full fledged API/full fledged app/