Here come the fashbots, and this time they might actually be useful. Facebook’s seemingly half-baked chatbot platform soured many on the potential of conversation user interfaces. The first bots built by outside developers back in April were clumsy and more trouble than just using a website. So Facebook’s Creative Shop is getting involved, working with bot maker Msg.ai and the… Read More
Facebook steps in to prove the value of chatbots with Tommy Hilfiger
The joy that comes from listening to music with friends is something that’s been around ever since…well, ever since music. But today, thanks to digital services that let you listen anytime, anywhere, music is now more often a solo experience. A new app called Lisn wants to change that, by offering you a way to listen to music with a friend, no matter how far apart you are, and… Read More
Lisn’s new app lets you stream songs for your friends while chatting
“What if I figured out a way to take Facebook from 2004 and bring it to 2016? What if every field in your profile was a full video?” asks Facebook’s 19-year-old product prodigy Michael Sayman. The answer is Lifestage, a standalone iOS app for people 21 and under, which Facebook is launching today. It asks for your happy face, sad face, likes, dislikes, best friend, the way… Read More
Facebook’s new teens-only app Lifestage turns bios into video profiles
Big purchases are scary to make online without anyone there to quell your fears and answer questions. Operator’s app wants to give you the same peace of mind, not with mechanical chat bot responses, but through real humans with knowledge about whatever you’re buying. Today Operator 2.0 launches with a new Discovery tab where curators assemble recommendations about their… Read More
Operator fuses bots with humans to build cyborg shopping experts
Livestreaming app Blab, which amassed 3.9 million users in just one year, shut down this weekend, its CEO Shaan Puri announced with a post on Medium late Friday. The app, which competed with Twitter’s Periscope, Facebook Live, IBM-owned UStream.tv and other media companies in the livestreaming game, was created at Monkey Inferno, a tech incubator self-funded by the founders of Bebo,… Read More