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Facebook Messenger Becomes Boarding Pass For KLM While Future Promises Secret Chats And A Retail Hub

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 23:56 PST, Mar 30, 2016

Facebook Messenger has been evolving to become a platform for small business owners to distribute their content as well as giving users a way to send and receive money. Facebook is also working to turn their messenger into a way for businesses to communicate with their customers and perform customer service.

The Verge reported that Facebook has now partnered with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to allow passengers to use Messenger to receive flight updates. If passengers choose to book a ticket, then KLM will start up a chat thread, send booking confirmation, flight status, and scheduling changes. KLM will also issue a boarding pass through the messenger app so that passengers can get through security and board their flights.

David Marcus, who leads the Facebook Messenger team, said that this is just the beginning of its work with KLM.

“This is one that I’ve been personally eager to solve for a while. Removing stress, and complication from air travel.”

Endgadget reported that Facebook has plans to make Facebook Messenger more than just a chat app. At an F8 developer conference last year, Facebook announced that they had plans to evolve messenger into more than a chat app. One of the biggest announcements is that Facebook Messenger is being turned into a platform for other third-party apps. Initially, Facebook integrated GIF keyboards and games into the messenger app. Now users can request a ride through Uber or Lyft or share a song through Spotify.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Facebook Messenger app received a major design makeover on Android. Facebook also has plans to allow businesses to share their content automatically with their readers. Other messenger apps like WhatsApp are already allowing sites like the Huffington Post to distribute their content automatically. Other development features that will be discussed at this year’s F8 conference include allowing developers to develop chat bots to perform various functions.

With all these changes to the Facebook Messenger app, content marketers and other businesses may wonder if they should use Facebook Messenger instead of creating their own apps to distribute information and resources. For customers, it’s convenient, because users have everything conveniently integrated into one app. For businesses, it gives them a convenient way to connect with their audiences, because chat is the number one function used on smartphones. Thirty-five percent of U.S. smartphone users use a messenger app on their phones, while 97 percent of smartphone users use text messaging on their phones at least once a week.

The Independent UK reported that in addition to the previously mentioned features for Facebook Messenger, Facebook also plans to add secret chats as well as allow the messenger service to become a retail hub. Facebook Messenger’s competitor Telegram already offers chat that is encrypted and can’t be read elsewhere. Their website explained how secret chats work.

“Telegram’s special secret chats use end-to-end encryption, leave no trace on our servers, support self-destructing messages and don’t allow forwarding. On top of this, secret chats are not part of the Telegram cloud and can only be accessed on their devices of origin.”

Although it is unclear how Facebook Messenger will become a retail hub, Facebook is planning to offer a payment processor, and there are plans for a bot store. Robots will be able to talk to those who are making purchases, and users will be allowed to buy things through the stores. The new features that Facebook plans will allow users to buy and sell through the messenger app.

[Photo via Facebook]

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