2016 may turn out to be the year of the bots.
Facebook is reportedly working on a plan that would allow developers to build chatbots to run inside of Messenger. The news comes weeks after a report that Google may also be working on a new bot-based messaging service.
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The latest rumor, which comes to us from TechCrunch, says Facebook is working on a "Chat SDK" that enables developers to build bots that would allow Facebook users to access shopping, travel and other services through conversations in Messenger.
Note that this different than M, the artificially intelligent assistant Facebook is creating for Messenger. Though M can do many of the tasks bots could complete -- make a restaurant reservation, for example -- the idea here, it seems, is to allow Facebook's partner developers to build their own bots that users could chat with inside of message threads to complete tasks.
The company has reportedly been testing the software development kit among a handful of developers for some time, though it's not clear how many third-party developers are involved at this stage. Facebook did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment on the report.
The move should come as little surprise as Facebook has been steadily expanding the scope of Messenger -- and its relationship with third-party developers -- for more than a year. After bringing on the first outside developers into Messenger last spring, the social network has expanded the role of some developers. The company recently added a transportation integration with Uber, for example, and plans to expand to more transit partners in the future.
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