I am a fan of Hackathons. Last year I joined Microsoft Azure AI Hackathon and got the consolation prize for my entry, Human Framework. Joining hackathons is really fun and gives you an innovator mentality. It helps you explore new things and making ideas into real world applications. But what's good about hackathons is the opportunity to solve problems - you might think your solutions only solve small issues but it can be very useful to other people.
A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking marathon) is a design sprint-like event; often, in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, domain experts, and others collaborate intensively on software projects.
- Wikipedia
Facebook Messaging hackathon
This year, Facebook announced 3 hackathons for aspiring innovators. I joined Facebook Messaging Hackathon because I am an avid fan of Chatbots. I already made a few chatbots and was able to sold one. Brewing up a concept or idea can be very hard because there are lots of chatbots out there that you can already use not only on the Facebook Messenger space but on other messaging platforms.
Where I reside though has a very different ecosystem compared to wealthier countries. Here in the Philippines, you can use Facebook Messenger for free without paying any mobile service but only text messages are free. If you want to access rich media like images, videos, audio, etc., you have to pay for a data plan.
This year's Hackathon theme is "Build messaging solutions that empower business conversations".
Normal people here don't use emails
I have several relatives and friends here in the Philippines who do not know what an "Email" is. This is because they grew up in the provinces (rural/agricultural areas) which up until now have no internet cables or because some of them belong to the older age group. Email is an integral part of business communications and most of the time it is required or needed when transacting with banks, government offices, and a lot of businesses. Email is the traditional and proven way for businesses to reach out to customers.
Email is an integral part of business communications. Email is the traditional and proven way for businesses to reach out to customers.
Thanks to Facebook's initiative with mobile telcos giving these people access to "free internet" that most of them have Facebook and Messenger accounts registered thru their mobile numbers. With this, it is now easy to send and receive emails thru Messenger with Mail-in-Chat!
Small businesses have no resources to setup a chatbot
Not all businesses have the expertise or resources to build their own chatbot. As an alternative, some of these businesses create their own Facebook page and other social media accounts in order to cater customer messages. With this, they will again encounter the same problem - resources. Not all businesses can reply to customer messages immediately. Some of these messages can also be overlooked or skipped because managing different accounts is a tedious task.
Businesses, however, has one single email account they can use for support. Managing a single email account is easier and more secure. Mail-in-Chat makes it easier for businesses to reply to customers because customers don't need to setup an email account and businesses don't need to setup a chatbot.
with Mail-in-Chat, customers don't need to setup an email account and businesses don't need to setup a chatbot
What is Mail-in-Chat?
Mail-in-Chat is a chatbot that allow users to create, send and receive emails thru Facebook Messenger. It also integrates with the Messenger webview for users to easily navigate to the Mail-in-Chat webmail client. With Mail-in-Chat in Messenger, emailing is now easier.
Mail-in-Chat enable businesses to connect with Messenger users thru email:
- helping businesses to inform users of new products and offers;
- notify users of booking status (airline, hotels, etc.);
- help with customer support and issue tracking;
- a lot of small businesses are late or unable to enter the chatbot ecosystem because of lack of resources but they are still able to support users thru traditional email which Mail-in-Chat can help with to support these users
To summarize, Mail-in-Chat tries to solve 2 major problems:
- Old people and people in rural and agricultural areas do not have access to emails
- Small businesses have no resources to setup a chatbot support
How can I use Mail-in-Chat?
First, you need to have a Messenger account. Mail-in-Chat is very useful for people who registered using their mobile numbers. These are the people who really don't have email accounts.
After creating your Messenger account, you may follow any of these options:
- Visit the official Mail-in-Chat Facebook page and click the Send Message button: https://www.facebook.com/mailinchat
- Using Messenger, search for "Mail-in-Chat".
- The easiest way is to click the shortlink https://m.me/mailinchat which will open the Chatbot directly on your Messenger apps
For instructions how to send and receive email, watch the demo video below.
Future Goals
Joining Facebook Messaging hackathon is the first step on making Mail-in-Chat useful for people and businesses. The Chatbot still requires a lot of improvements like making the user experience better and focusing on security. Making it available to other Messaging platforms like Telegram, Slack, etc. is also something I am looking forward to.
Help Mail-in-Chat grow by sharing it to your friends!
