f82016
Latest
Facebook is poised to take the chatbot world by storm
Even though chatbots have been around for quite some time -- remember the SmarterChild bot on AIM? -- they've only recently become the darlings of the tech world. Just two weeks ago, Microsoft announced its Conversations as a Platform initiative, wherein it plans to build bots into Skype to help you do things like book hotels or order a pizza from Domino's. This week, Facebook unveiled its own bot platform for Messenger, which aims to do the same things. At first glance, the two seem similar, but there is one big difference. While the demos we saw at Build are still being built, many of the ones shown at F8 are already live.
Facebook shows how you'll be able to auto-tag friends in videos
On stage at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference, the company did a quick demo of an upcoming auto-tagging feature for video. Using the artificial-intelligence-based recognition technology Facebook already uses to identify your friends in photos, the social network will be able to determine who's in your videos.
Facebook wants us to take VR selfies with virtual selfie sticks
When Facebook bought Oculus two years ago, many thought the combination was odd. Facebook is a social network while Oculus makes virtual reality headsets. The two didn't seem to go together. Well, at F8, Facebook's developer conference, we might have seen a peek into how Facebook plans to integrate social into VR. It's not just about watching a movie together or linking an Oculus account to Facebook. It actually involves interacting with another person in a virtual space: chatting, laughing, drawing doodles, sharing photos and, as we saw in a demo at F8, even taking virtual selfies with virtual selfie sticks.
Facebook unveils two new wireless systems for underserved areas
At its annual F8 developer conference, Facebook announced two new wireless systems meant to help bring internet access to underserved areas. One system will tackle pushing broadband through the buildings found in dense cities while the other is meant to increase the bandwidth of towers.
Here are all the Facebook Messenger bots we know about so far
While Facebook just announced its bots for Messenger platform today, it already has a few dozen developers lined up to take the plunge. If you downloaded the latest Messenger update today, then you're ready to get started with the CNN bot, a weather bot called Poncho, a Wall Street Journal bot, a bot for 1-800-Flowers and a few more. Here we've compiled a starter list of bots that are already available, plus ones that are slated to arrive in the next few months. You can also peruse the Messenger bot store on Botlist for more. (Props to Martin Hoffman for this public Google Doc of Known Bots).
Create Facebook profile videos with Vine, Boomerang and more
Facebook flipped the switch on profile videos last fall, and now its allowing you to upload those short clips from third-party apps. The social network announced the Facebook Profile Expression Kit at F8, an SDK that will allow app developers to build in tools that allow users to set video creations as a moving profile image. There's already a handful of apps that support the profile videos during the initial beta phase, including MSQRD, Boomerang from Instagram and Vine. Once you make your video, you'll now have the option of setting it as your main Facebook profile visual with just a few taps.
Facebook lets you share quoted text with a click
Facebook is continually looking for ways to help you share more stuff. Today, the social network announced a tool for developers that will help you easily share quotes from an article. Rather than having to copy and paste a snippet of text across apps, you'll be able to simply highlight the words you want to share and post them to Facebook with a click. In the News Feed, the post will appear as a block quote with a link to the original URL or source. And yes, you can add an additional comment on top of the selected text.
Facebook to allow live video streaming from any device
Facebook has been pushing Live Video lately, with a revamped app experience designed to elevate the feature to its users. Today at F8, Facebook's Developer Conference, the company announced plans to increase its Live Video efforts even more. It's opening up a Live API so that anyone can build in the ability to stream live from any device. At the conference, Mark Zuckerberg showed that the ability to stream live video to Facebook has been built into a drone, which will be streaming live video from the conference over the next two days.
Chatbots arrive on Facebook Messenger
As we suspected, Facebook is indeed adding chatbot support to Messenger, and it's officially called "Bots for Messenger." It's not a surprise at this point, given that the latest Messenger update shows a "Bots and Businesses" section and that there have been rumors floating around about it for a week now. Still, Zuckerberg & Co. finally made it official. Facebook's CEO gave a demonstration onstage about how he ordered flowers from 1-800-Flowers just by sending a few messages to the company's chatbot. There was also a demo of a CNN bot that offered breaking news after sending a request.
Watch the keynote for Facebook's Developer Conference right here
Today is the first day of F8, Facebook's Developer Conference, which is where Zuckerberg and Co often reveal their plans for developers in the coming year. As recent news indicate, get ready for more details about Facebook's plans for live video and Messenger -- specifically chatbots -- and we won't be surprised if we hear more news about the recently released Oculus Rift either. If all of that rocks your boat, you can go ahead and watch the livestream right here in the video below. Tune in at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET to catch the whole thing.
Facebook Messenger's latest update hints at chatbots
At this point, it's a bit of an open secret that Facebook will announce the arrival of chatbots for Messenger at F8, its annual developer conference. Well, the latest Messenger update all but confirms it. If you were to do a search in the latest version of Facebook's chat app, you'll find a new category heading called "Bots and Businesses." Prior to the update, this would simply read "Businesses," which was a listing of companies that you could message for customer support and general inquiries. Messaging businesses typically involves speaking to a human, however, while talking to chatbots would likely be a more automated experience -- sort of like chatting to the equivalent of a phone tree. We've seen a few examples of this already. Uber and Lyft requests function similar to bots (especially if you're requesting updates), as does the recent KLM chatbot that lets you book flights with just a few keypresses. There've also been rumors that the chatbot experience isn't limited to just businesses either; we're hearing that publishers could get in on the Messenger chatbot train as well (get ready for breaking news via Messenger). Techcrunch reported last week that a Chat SDK of sorts have already been seeded out to a few developers that instructs them on how to build chatbots into Messenger, so we're guessing we'll find out more about how it all works at the F8 keynote later today at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Stay tuned.
