Facebook Developing Digital Assistant

Facebook is reportedly making its Messenger app more personal, thanks to a new service that it says will help act as a digital assistant.

Nicknamed Moneypenny, the service lets users ask real people for help answer questions or carry out tasks such as researching and ordering products and services, according to The Information.

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This marks out as separate from the likes of Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana, and may well factor in online shopping aspects after Facebook opened up payments using Messenger back in March.

Moneypenny may also link up with Messenger for Businesses, an upgraded version of the service which lets companies directly interact with their customers, allowing them to receive updates about online shopping orders and delivery times, as well as being able to ask businesses questions about products or services.

These all form part of the wider launch of Messenger as a Platform, an expansion to Messenger which Facebook hopes will expand its reach outside of the social network and on to other sites.

There’s no concrete release date for the service as yet, but the report claims that Moneypenny is currently being tested internally by the social network’s employees.

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