Facebook Updates Messenger Bots With Menus ⇥ techcrunch.com

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

One of the problems with Facebook’s bots is that it’s often unclear how to get started. The directory of bots in Messenger wasn’t initially available and now only reveals itself when you start a search in the app. And it hasn’t always been obvious how to get a bot talking, once added, or how to navigate back and forth through a bot’s many sections.

The Messenger platform update today tackles this latter problem, by offering an alternative to the more limited – and sometimes confusing – systems that were previously available.

Instead of forcing users to talk with a bot, developers can choose to create a persistent menu that allows for multiple, nested items as a better way of displaying all the bots’ capabilities in a simple interface.

Bringing all the fun and excitement of a customer service telephone tree to a help system few people use. I doubt these bots are having anything like the effect that Facebook thought — or hoped — they might.