At Facebook's F8 developer conference held yesterday, the company introduced 4 major updates. The biggest updates were revealed for Messenger: Facebook has created a marketplace for bots. The social media giant is also betting big on virtual reality using its Oculus Rift platform and on enterprise networking with Facebook Workplace platform. Below is a lowdown Messenger updates Almost a year after opening Messenger bots to developers, Facebook is now adding more functionalities to its chat app. The company says that Messenger can now be used as a Telephone directory for finding new users and as a digital Yellow Pages book for finding new businesses and services. Here is how Facebook plans to do it: Discover tab: On the home screen of the Messenger app, a new discover tab will allow users to browse through bots, pages, companies, products, nearby places and events, News, etc. The ‘bot store’ feature is being rolled out in the US as of now. Any developer can add their own customized messenger bots to the platform. Messenger codes: The Messenger app now allow businesses and individuals to generate ‘parametric QR codes’. Whenever a Facebook users scans these QR codes, it will redirect them to a web page, an event page, etc. Messenger QR codes can also be customized for events like sporting games, concerts, etc. Chat extensions: With this feature, users can invoke messenger bots within chat conversations—something which Google’s Allo has been doing using its Google Assitant feature. For example, within a chat conversation or…
