Facebook is playing a dangerous game with Apple
Facebook's new Messenger Platform is being hailed as the next big thing, but it needs to watch its step in its promotion to keep Apple and its iPhone on board.
Facebook has finally unleashed Messenger Platform, letting developers build chatbots — intelligent software that lets you get stuff done just by sending text messages.
It's a big moment for chatbots, which tech luminaries like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former Evernote CEO Phil Libin praise as the next big thing in computing. And investors are pouring cash into startups that promise to ride the wave.
Which makes it even weirder that Facebook's introduction of the Messenger Platform feels a little tepid.
Rather than follow in Microsoft's footsteps and pitch chatbots as a transformational shift that will change the future of computing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is billing them as a better way to interact with businesses and go shopping. There's not even an app-store-like listing of available bots to see them in one place.
Facebook has proven over the years that it's not stupid, so you can rule out the possibility that Zuckerberg and company simply haven't realised the potential that chatbots have to make computing more accessible to the masses.
The real answer looks to be a little more complicated. With Messenger Platform, Facebook Messenger gets to be a little bit more like an operating system. Libin even called chatbots the most exciting thing since the iPhone.
