Over 11,000 chatbots created for Facebook’s Messenger platform

Three months after Facebook bought into Chatbots by opening its Messenger platform, over 11,000 chatbots have been created on it by retailers and other businesses aiming to use the platform for customer service and sales efforts.

Now the social media giant is rolling out more tools to help companies running chatbots on Facebook Messenger to create more interactive conversations with users, including features like Quick Replies, which enables retailers to offer as many as 10 dynamic response buttons, making it easier to automate shopper interactions. There is also a persistent menu, more content types like GIFs, audio and video, and a star-based rating system.

The new additions should be beneficial to any retailers and e-commerce players that have jumped into Facebook's chatbot pool, such as Modiface, which now uses a chatbot program combined with facial recognition and simulation technologies to help social networkers try on lipstick, hopefully with an eye toward purchasing it.

About 23,000 developers have signed up to use Wit.ai’s bot engine to automate Facebook Messenger conversations between users and businesses.

Facebook has not disclosed how many consumers have used the chatbots for customer service or purchasing purposes.