MESSAGING apps do a lot more these days than send messages.
Facebook's Messenger app is the perfect example. Last week, the company added the ability to let Messengers users send and receive money. And on Wednesday, the company announced that users of its stand-alone Messenger app would be able to download new apps that add extra features.
Right now, those new features are mainly limited to more advanced messages, like text messages that turn into songs or one that lets you animate selfie photos. But the company announced tools for developers to build in even more capabilities, plus partnerships with stores so that users can track online purchases and packages in Messenger.
Such moves are part of a trend toward messaging apps becoming do-it-all services. The model, in many ways, comes from the messaging giants popular in China and Japan: Tencent’s WeChat (known as Weixin in China), and Line, which became a powerful alternative to text messaging after the devastating Tohoku earthquake of 2011.
“Facebook or these messenger apps, they’re wondering, what’s their future?” said Brian Blau, a research director at the technology research firm Gartner. “How are they going to engage? Are they going to risk having all their users in one app basket? Wouldn’t it be better if they were more of a platform, and could have users in all sorts of areas and have businesses come to rely on them?”
For users, beefier and more powerful messaging apps could be a logical extension of the activities they’re already doing — or they could quickly overwhelm. It all depends on execution, and WeChat and Line appear to be getting it right.
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