Facebook is betting big on bots by opening analytics and FbStart to developers

Facebook introduced bots to its Messenger app earlier this year and ever since there are now more than 34,000 of them built-in to automatically feed information to users. A couple of weeks back the social network announced that it is adding bots on its free analytics platform, which already has ads and apps. This will allow bot developers to track their bots better. Facebook also opened up its worldwide assistance program for early stage mobile startups, FbStart to bot developers. Facebook expanded the analytics and FbStart tools after a lot of requests from the developers. Thanks to these tools bot developers can now improve on how they build their bots by monitoring their activity as well as get support from Facebook itself. Analytics is an essential tool for a developer. This enables them to track how well something is working and get a variety of feedback. Facebook says that features that will be included are reaches across mobile and desktop devices and measurement of customers’ journey across apps and websites. Developers will also be able to view reports on messages sent, messages received, and people who block or unblock their app. Anonymous data reports on bot demographics will be made available which will include details like age, gender, education, interests, country and language. Bots are going to be the next big thing for app and app developers. With the announcement of the new tools, Facebook as well as developers could get a fair idea if bots will be useful service for them in the longer term, or be successful for a brief period.