Facebook Announces Launch Of New Messenger Customer Chat Plugin For Businesses

Facebook is introducing a new way for brands to connect with users, with the roll out of a new Messenger customer chat plugin.

The customer chat plugin allows people to chat with businesses on their websites and in Messenger – the history saved so users can pick up the conversation on different platforms.

Facebook said the tool is designed to “make it easier for customers to continue the conversation with a business whenever and wherever it’s most convenient for them.”

The customer chat plugin also supports platform capabilities like payments, NLP and rich media – capabilities that will be expanded over the coming months.

Facebook’s Head of Messenger Products Stan Chudnovsky said: “It’s next-stage in terms of allowing people to discover businesses not only inside Messenger.

“You can search for and to find the business, but now you can find it from the property of the website.”

The tool is currently in beta and is being used by select partners including Argos, KLM, Zalando and Adore Me.

Those interested can apply here to be notified when the Customer Chat plugin becomes broadly available.

The beta was announced alongside improvements to Messenger, including the ability to attach a CTA button when sharing media, a subscriber messaging API and page-level feedback.

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