Holiday booking service Skyscanner has announced a chat bot that enables users to book their vacation and search for holiday inspiration from within Facebook Messenger.
The conversation bot's main function is to search for flights on request and redirect users to the Skyscanner website to confirm their booking and complete payment.
Users can also ask the bot to search for holiday inspiration and find destinations they might be interested in based on their departure location.
The bot searches using current trends and cheap offers to offer up getaway inspiration, which can be activated by users in chat by tapping "Don't know" when asked where they would like to go.
Users can find the bot by typing "Skyscanner" into Messenger's search field. Users without the Facebook Messenger app can still converse with the bot by going to a browser redirect link that takes them to the web version of the social media company's messaging platform.
Skyscanner follows the likes of Poncho, KLM, 1-800-Flowers, CNN, and Foursquare in launching a dedicated bot. Facebook brought the bot support to its Messenger platform last month, allowing approved developers direct access to toolkits and live chat APIs so they can build chat programs for companies that let them interface with customers. Botlist is just one dedicated store that has recently arisen where users can discover chat bots they can interact with through the app.
Facebook Messenger is free on the App Store for iPhone. [Direct Link]
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