Facebook Introduces an A.I. Assistant Into its Messenger App

By Sia. in Social Media. April 12, 2017.

In 2015, Facebook teased the world with M, a digital assistant that is made for the Messenger app. Now, two years after it was first revealed, M can now be found on the latest version of the Messenger app.

Currently available for Messenger users in the United States, with a worldwide release following shortly after, M is an A.I. powered digital assistant that is capable of helping its users to accomplish certain tasks. Seeing as M also uses machine learning, the assistant would get even better as time goes on.

As M is still in its early stages, the feature is currently only able to provide suggestions depending on the conversion . For example, if a user were to greet someone, M may pop-up with a selection of stickers that can accompany the conversation. If someone in the conversation asks "where are you?", M may give you the option to share your location.

In its current form, some of the features that M can do includes:

Suggesting stickers.
Sharing locations.
Making plans.
Conducting polls.
Getting a ride through ride-sharing apps such as Lyft or Uber.
Conducting payments via Messenger’s phone-to-phone payment feature.

While M may feel a bit rudimentary at the moment, Facebook has mentioned that it intends to continue developing until it becomes a fully operational digital assistant. As for those of you who don’t want an assistant bugging you with suggestions, rest assured that you’ll be able to disable M altogether.