BotCube

I'm sure you have already seen new Messenger feature - Customer Chat Plugin.

Here's a great example of how you can use it with your bot to drive leads to your Messenger channel:
https://www.jonloomer.com/2017/11/07/facebook-messenger-customer-chat-plugin/

Chatbot that can trick email scammers

Talking to chatbots is usually a waste of time, so why not have them waste someone else’s instead?

Better yet: why not have them waste an email scammer’s time.

That’s the premise behind Re:scam, an email chatbot operated by New Zealand cybersecurity firm Netsafe.

Next time you get a dodgy email in your inbox, says Netsafe, forward it on to me@rescam.org, and a proxy email address will start replying to the scammer for you, doing its very utmost to waste their time.

Open the article below to see a few sample dialogues, they’re hilarious.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/10/16632724/scam-chatbot-ai-email-rescam-netsafe

Time to build apps for Google Home

Google Assistant received some major upgrades in recent days to help developers make voice apps that interact with Google’s AI assistant.

Upgrades include more expressive voices, ability to send push notifications and many more.

Beyond push notifications, voice apps can now deliver daily updates or notifications about certain kinds of content.

Also, on Monday, Google announced that Home speakers can now be used as an intercom system.

All of these features are already around on Amazon Alexa for a couple of months, so Google is still behind in this race.

More info about the updates is in the article below.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/15/google-gives-developers-more-tools-to-make-better-voice-apps/

Google’s Chatbase is finally launching to public!

Most of you have probably heard or already used chatbot analytics service by Google called Chatbase.

But I personally spent about a month waiting for my request approval before I get access to it.

Now these problems are gone and the platform is open and free for everyone.

The idea behind Chatbase’s cloud service is to offer tools to more easily analyze and optimize chatbots.

This includes giving bot builders the ability to understand what works to increase customer conversions, improve the bot’s accuracy, and create a better user experience.

The system today integrates with any voice or text messaging platform, Google says, including Facebook, Kik, Viber, Slack, WhatsApp, WeChat, Alexa, Cortana, Allo, Line, Skype, Twitter, and more.

Beyond bot analytics, the tool leverages Google’s machine learning capabilities to figure out what sort of problems could be affecting the bot.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/16/googles-chatbot-analytics-platform-chatbase-launches-to-public/

Hey folks, most of you already know that we have the biggest knowledge base about bots - awesome-bots.

It has just passed 1000 stars and continue growing! ⭐️

It’s been a while since the last huge update there, so if you’ve built something cool during this time - feel free to drop me a message (@maximabramchuk) or just go straight and open a pull request on Github.

Thanks!

https://github.com/BotCube/awesome-bots

Manychat guys are on fire 🔥

Two days ago I was talking about their new revolutionary Flow Builder thing and here is a new cool stuff from these guys.

They’ve released a holy grail for marketers - “The Ultimate Guide To Messenger Marketing and Facebook
Chatbots”.

This guide was created to answer all of the unanswered questions you have about Messenger Marketing 📘

This is the most comprehensive piece of content on the web about Facebook chatbots… print it out, study it, and share with your friends!

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:
- Grow Your Business with Messenger Marketing
- Get Facebook Messenger Subscribers
- Send Messages to Your Subscribers
- Automate Your Messenger Marketing With Chatbots
- Use ManyChat
- Integrate ManyChat with Zapier
- Create a Messenger Ad Inside of Facebook
- Create Destination Ads
- Send a Sponsored Message
- Nurture Leads inside of Messenger
- Deliver Content
- Deploy Retargeting
- Drive More Sales
- Case Studies…. and more!! 😳

Enjoy 6,000+ words of juicy Facebook chatbot goodness 🍫🍩🍰

https://blog.manychat.com/ultimate-guide-messenger-marketing-and-facebook-chatbots/

Amazon's Alexa and Prime Music service arrive in Canada

Amazon will start pre-selling the Echo, Echo Plus and Echo Dot in Canada today for
the introductory prices of CAD $100, $170 and $70, respectively. Shipping will start
by December 5th, and Alexa will presumably be available at that point. Prime Music
is available today with a Prime membership.

Amazon has introduced a new English voice for Alexa with a Canadian accent,
though even we Canadians aren't exactly sure what that is. However, Alexa doesn't
seem to be available yet in French, which is bit surprising considering that it's one
of Canada's two official languages.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/15/amazon-alexa-prime-music-canada/

BBC releases its first Alexa-powered interactive audio drama

The BBC has a rich history in radio, after having been founded as a wireless broadcaster back in the 1920s. 

But now, the corporation is embracing the world of interactive audio stories with the release of The Inspection Chamber, a sci-fi comedy drama that you use your voice to participate in. 

The experience has been developed by the BBC's R&D department alongside Rosina Sound.

The experience can be downloaded from the Alexa Skill Store or the BBC Taster website, at which point you'll be able to play along as a fourth character. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0774XFXLZ/

ManyChat changes the way of building chatbots 🔥

A couple of weeks ago they’ve released really revolutionary thing - a new way to build your bots that makes the process faster, easier and gives you – the bot builder – more power.

It’s called Flow Builder.

Flow Builder is a visual map of all the messages, actions and transitions between them.

It gives you a birds-eye view of the whole interaction without having to switch between single messages.

A single flow consists of Steps (like sending a message or performing actions) and connections between them.

A flow begins with a starting step which has a green "Starting Step" badge on top and then progresses step-by-step depending on user's actions.

Of course all the other platforms like MotionAI and others have a flow builder for a while already, but it’s a really new level.

Be sure to check it out, it’s a truly new ManyChat at all.

http://flowbuilder.manychat.com

Amazon Alexa expands to Japan

Amazon has announced that its smart Echo speakers and voice-activated Alexa digital assistant are now available in Japan by invitation.

Though Amazon was the first of the major tech firms to popularize voice-controlled smart speakers in the U.S., it could face an uphill battle in Japan.

Local tech titan Line recently launched its own version of the Echo, called Clova Wave, and Google introduced Home to Japan a few weeks back.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/08/amazons-alexa-expands-beyond-english-and-german-into-japanese-as-the-echo-launches-in-japan/

Facebook Messenger native payments come to UK and France

Facebook Messenger extended its peer-to-peer payment system to millions of users by making payments possible in Euros and British pounds in France and the United Kingdom respectively. 

This is the first time P2P payment is being made available to Facebook Messenger users outside the U.S. since being introduced more than two years ago.

https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/11/send-money-to-friends-in-messenger-now-in-euros-and-british-pounds/

Alexa is coming to Japan! 🇯🇵

Amazon announced that Alexa, the brain behind the Amazon Echo, is coming to Japan, along with several Alexa-enabled devices: Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot. Customers who want to help further the development of Alexa and the Echo family of devices may request an invitation to purchase devices beginning today.

This opens up new opportunities for developers in Japan and around the world. Starting today, you can build for voice with Alexa and reach customers in Japan with the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), the collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation, and code samples. And starting this month, developers can preview all AVS technical documentation and generally available development tools on the Japanese language Developer Portal, and can sign up for the developer preview. Hardware makers are already planning voice-driven experiences for customers in Japan through an invite-only customer preview program including Onkyo P3 speakers, Harman Kardon Allure, and Eufy Genie.

Tens of thousands of developers from around the world have already started developing voice experiences for Alexa. More than 250 skills will be available at launch with Alexa in Japan. Popular Japanese brands are already building skills for Japanese customers including: ALC PRESS INC., All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., Hitachi, Ltd., JTB Corp., Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., Nomura Holdings, Inc., The Pokémon Company, Shiseido Japan Co., Ltd., TV Asahi Corporation, ZENSHO HOLDINGS CO., LTD., and others.

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/0fcba76b-7460-4975-8fad-833996f6a23e/alexa-skills-kit-now-available-in-japan

This is an absolute game changer! 🔥

In today's Messenger Platform 2.2 updates the Customer Chat plugin was announced.

We've all wanted to extend the Messenger experience to website visitors and now you can.

How does this improve your process?
1. No more asking for an email address to engage with a potential customer with a likely tiny CTR.
2. No need to direct website visitors away from your site via a "Send to Messenger" button to chat with your Messenger bot, potentially never seeing them again.
3. Instantly get access to full name, location, language, profile photo and gender which all can be used to segment and personalise future engagements.
4. Further qualify leads using Facebooks quick replies and rich UI which make it easy and enjoyable for visitors to give you more info about them
5. Hand over warm leads to live agents using Facebook's Handover protocol.
6. Hello open rates of 85% and CTR of 35% when re-engaging website visitors in Messenger.

Congrats the Messenger team and to Chatfuel for being a launch partner for this feature.

https://messenger.fb.com/blog/2-2-release/

Will.i.am’s startup raises $117 million to launch a voice assistant

I.am+, the tech startup founded by pop star and entrepreneur will.i.am, has raised $117 million in venture funding to enter the corporate computing market with a voice assistant for customer service.

The company, founded in 2012, initially focused on consumer electronics devices such as headphones.

The new artificial intelligence product, similar to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, marks a sharp departure for the firm, which now employs about 300 people.

Will.i.am said customer support is just the start of Omega.

The plan is to use the technology to build several more enterprise voice AI products.

Voice space is heating quickly 🔥

https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/06/will-i-ams-startup-raises-117-million-and-launches-bot-engine-for-enterprise-market/

Alexa gets its first celeb voice with Oprah

Don’t get too excited, Oprah won’t respond to your day-to-day questions, the addition of Oprah’s voice is part of a holiday shopping promotion between Oprah’s O magazine and Amazon.

To trigger Oprah’s voice, Alexa users have to say, “Alexa, let’s shop Oprah’s favorite things.”

If anything, this integration is more of a gimmick to promote Oprah’s holiday list and Amazon’s Echo speakers.

It’s not, however, a very efficient way to shop.

Not only does it force you to listen to items one-by-one, it’s also difficult to encourage people to shop based on product suggestions and descriptions alone.

Most people want to see photos – and sometimes even videos – before making an online purchase.

But I’m pretty sure that is 5 years Alexa-powered devices, especially Echo Show, will be a preferred way of shopping.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/02/alexa-gets-its-first-celeb-voice-with-oprah-but-its-just-a-holiday-promo/

Facebook today announced that sponsored messages are being rolled out to more businesses

The Messenger ads were initially made available to a small number of businesses but will become available to all businesses in the coming months.

Unlike other Messenger ads, sponsored messages that pop up on your Messenger home screen will not be marked as such.

In fact, they look like all other conversations on Facebook Messenger.

As previously defined rules for advertising and marketing on Facebook Messenger state, promotional messages like the kind being rolled out now may only be sent once in a 24-hour period, and they can only be sent to a person who previously chatted with that business’ Facebook Messenger bot or account.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/03/facebook-messenger-will-soon-let-all-businesses-send-sponsored-messages/

Google is hoping the way to your ears is through your stomach.

To promote the launch of Google Home Mini, about the size of, say, a donut—the tech company is putting on its baking mitts with a series of pop-up doughnut shops across the country.

At nine cities across the U.S. and Canada, visitors will be able to walk into a donut shop to a kiosk, where they’ll be able to ask a Mini device a question, triggering a box to slide down from a chute.

Visitors will then head to a counter and unbox their package, which will either contain a donut or a Mini. (Google says it won’t deprive Mini winners of donuts, too.)

The doughnut shops at various locations will be open at different days throughout the fall, starting this weekend in San Francisco and Manhattan and ending in St. Louis on Nov. 9.

Donut or voice assistant? 🤔

http://www.adweek.com/digital/google-is-opening-pop-up-doughnut-shops-to-promote-its-voice-activated-mini-speakers/

Google has just released an IDE for building bots

Bottery is a syntax, editor, and simulator for prototyping generative contextual conversations.

The goal of Bottery is to help everyone, from designers to writers to coders, be able to write simple and engaging contextual conversational agents, and to test them out in a realistic interactive simulation, mimicking how they'd work on a "real" platform like API.AI.

I would definitely suggest you to take a look, it can be a game changer.

https://github.com/google/bottery

Amazon Alexa now allows you to define routines

Amazon’s Alexa is getting the ability to respond to custom phrases, schedule actions by smart home appliances, and give you a rundown of the weather, traffic, or news. 

Customizable voice commands and routines can be made with the new Routines tab in the Alexa app for Android and iOS.

You create a new routine by picking a phrase that begins with Alexa, then you choose an action you want to happen anytime you say that phrase.

The most obvious routines to establish are “Alexa, I’m home” or “Alexa, I’m heading out”.

Though Alexa Routines can really change the way you interact with an Echo device.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/30/amazon-debuts-alexa-routines-for-customizable-and-scheduled-tasks/

“Don’t be a Robot, Build the Robot.”

Wade Foster knows a thing or two about automation. He’s the founder and CEO of Zapier, which has become the web’s default platform for automating repetitive tasks, so he knows first hand how automation is reshaping how we do our jobs. Zapier is also a fully distributed team, with employees in over a dozen countries. Along with AI and automation, remote work is one of the top trends defining the future of work.

https://x.ai/how-ai-is-changing-my-job-wade-foster-ceo-at-zapier/