Facebook is getting into the personal assistance business with Facebook Messenger “M”
Facebook Messenger app is about to get a lot more useful, Facebook started to roll out a new mobile assistant called “M” to select Messenger users in San Francisco/Bay Area, according to a Wired report.
M can be seen as Facebook’s attempt to take on Siri and Google now but, with a major twist. The mobile assistant is in part powered by humans, which help users get tasks done that are too complicated for computers. For instance, M will be able to find nearby restaurants and reserve tables or order take-out, suggest last-minute birthday gifts and help organize parties.
All this will be done via messaging; users just type their requests as if they are talking to a regular person. On the other end of the line, a computer helps to make sense of these requests and field basic questions.
More advanced interactions are handed over to what Facebook calls “trainers” eseentially customer support representatives that can make phone calls for Facebook for users, and other things a computer would not be able to do.
But, not everyone is impressed with the new Facebook app. Forbes reports that the new feature faces several challenges. The first major challenge is that Siri, Cortana and Android’s Google Now is voice activated and integrated into the device.
Siri, Cortana, and Android’s Google Now services all have two distinct and major advantages over M. First, they’re the default virtual assistant on their respective mobile platforms. Using M requires opening the Facebook Messenger app first, but the other virtual assistants are just there waiting to help all the time. The other virtual assistants are also tightly integrated with other core functions of the device—contacts, calendar, phone, email, texting, location, mapping, etc.—which makes them exceptionally useful.
The second advantage these services have over M is that they’re voice enabled. I’m not positive how M will work but I assume it will be similar to how Facebook Messenger works right now. On my iPhone 6 I can open the Messenger app and I can start a message and tap the microphone icon to dictate my message rather than typing it, but that’s not the same. With the others you can activate the virtual digital assistant by simply saying “Hey Cortana” or pushing the home button on your mobile device.
We will have to wait and see if texting a computer will become more popular than talking to a computer.
