Maybe you did, or maybe you didn’t.
But some people have seen this notification in their Facebook Inbox:
And when they clicked on “Learn more”…
They got an error.
So that was really unfortunate. But it doesn’t mean that’s the end of the story.
Today I will break down what this notification can mean and why it is a possible gamechanger.
What does it mean?
This notification means that in the future, Facebook will probably launch a Guest feature for Messenger chat.
See the Messenger logo in the right-bottom of my page?
When you click on that logo, you can chat with my chatbot (or with me, if my chatbot doesn’t understand you).
But, before you can chat with me, you first need to log in to Facebook Messenger (or you’re already logged in).
With the new Guest feature, the logging in part is not necessary anymore.
This allows the users of your website to chat with you, even if they don’t have a Facebook account.
Why this is a gamechanger
There are 3 reasons why this is a gamechanger.
First of all, logging in to Facebook before you can chat with a business is just bad for the user experience.
A user just wants to chat with you. They want to click on your chat button and start typing right away. Now, they first need to go to Facebook, log in, go back to the website and then they can start typing.
The new feature would decrease the number of steps involved, which is good for the user experience.
Second, not everybody has a Facebook account or uses it regularly. I know that there are like 2.6 billion people on Facebook. But this also means that there 5 billion people not on Facebook. And there are several reasons why people don’t use Facebook (while they have an account):
- They think Facebook is old-fashioned. Instagram, Snapchat & TikTok are the new thing.
- They have privacy concerns
- Facebook reduces their productivity (or social media in general)
Third, and this is the most important reason for chat marketers, a lot of chatbot software companies are solely focusing on Facebook Messenger. Companies like ManyChat, Chatfuel and SilFer Bots mainly focus on Facebook Messenger as a channel.
But this has a potential drawback: it is not possible to extend your chatbot experience to your website for non-Facebook users. You have to log in to Facebook if you want to use their chat.
With the new feature, that is not necessary anymore. And with this new feature, you can easily scale your chatbot efforts to your website (for non-Facebook users) without going to a different chatbot software company.
No response from Facebook yet
Unfortunately, there is no response from Facebook yet regarding this new feature.
Probably a Facebook employee made some small mistake which is why this notification was visible in the Facebook Inbox.
So for now, we probably have to wait until this feature is officially launched.
And when it does, I will update this post.
Now, I would like to hear from you?
What do you think of this new feature? Would you use it? Would it change your chat efforts?
Let me know by leaving a comment.
