Facebook opens up Messenger to third-party apps

Mark Zuckerberg said Messenger had more than 600 million regular users

Facebook has confirmed that it is opening up its Messenger service to third-party developers, allowing them to add functions of their own.

It effectively completes the four-year-old software’s transformation from a“lightweight” chat app, spun off from the main Facebook site, into a fully-fledged “platform” of its own.
More than 40 new add-on apps have already been developed so far.
But one expert said there was a risk Messenger would become bloated.

Messenger users will be able to add new types of posts generated with third-party services

Messenger has already proved controversial with some users of the social network, who have complained about having to switch between two apps to stay in touch with their Facebook friends.
Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the move at his firm’s F8 developers conference in San Francisco.
He said more than 600 million people already used Messenger at least once a month to express themselves, and that allowing other social networks and services to directly post to it would make “conversations better”.

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Media captionWATCH: Mark Zuckerberg goes through some of the plans for Facebook’s Messenger app

Among the new apps unveiled are ways to post:

• Looped animated images known as Gifs sourced from the sports TV service ESPN and elsewhere
• Still images from the picture hosting site Imgur
• Computer-generated animal cartoon messages with recorded audio via Talking Tom
• Forecasts from the Weather Channel service
• E-cards from the humour site Jibjab
• Audio files from the Sound Clip

It builds on a move to allow US-based users to send money to and from each other via Messenger, which Facebook announced last week, and the earlier inclusion of Voip (voice over internet protocol) calls and stickers.
Mr Zuckerberg also revealed plans to launch an associated service called Businesses on Messenger.
Using the app instead of email, the public will be able to hold conversations with companies from which they buy goods, or have other interactions with.

Businesses will be able to have conversations with their customers via Messenger

Facebook suggested this could include receiving delivery status updates, organising the return of an order and asking follow-up questions.
The company is far from the first to attempt to turn a messaging app into a wider platform.

WeChat allows users to buy cinema tickets and choose their seats

China’s WeChat service has gone even further by allowing its users to book taxis, pick cinema seats and find nearby restaurants among other actions.
But one expert suggested Facebook should be cautious about the rate at which it adds further facilities to Messenger.
“There’s a potential risk that they are going to overload Messenger with too many functions and none of them become that important – it really depends on how extensive they get with the features that they add over time,” said Brian Blau from the Gartner tech consultancy.
“We have seen something like that happen with Facebook’s Timeline, where you have all these different people competing for your attention.
“So, Facebook won’t want to over-bloat, but it could enable all kinds of interesting scenarios where you can integrate messaging with other apps and services.”

ANALYSIS

Richard Taylor, North America technology correspondent

Right now many of the Messenger apps look fun, if a bit gimmicky.
But over time these new interactions will give Facebook another source of rich information about a user’s interests – and thereby the potential to attract more ad revenue.
Facebook would have taken inspiration from companies like China’s WeChat and Japan’s Line, which have proven successful in building both content and business services atop their core messenger offerings.
But Messenger for Business is an ambitious plan.
It is asking users to supplant more tried-and-tested means like email.
Other communications behemoths like Skype tried – unsuccessfully – to become places to reinvent communications between businesses and their customers.
Will users be happy to shift their business interactions over to Facebook – a platform where, until now, they have been used to dealing primarily with friends?

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Media captionWATCH: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg shows off “spherical video” which will soon be supported on the site.

Other announcements made at F8 included:

• Spherical video – users will soon be able to interact with 360-degree videos in their Facebook News Feeds. These are the type of immersive clips that might have been made for virtual reality headsets. YouTube recently added similar functionality
• Share Sheet – third-party apps will be able to add a new feature that allows them to easily share their own content to Facebook’s various services
• LiveRail – a way for firms to target their video ads using Facebook’s demographic data about its users. Facebook bought LiveRail, which used to be an independent firm, in July for a reported $500m (£336m)

Children spend six hours or more a day on screens

Children are spending far more time watching a screen, even though traditional TV viewing has dropped

The amount of time children spend glued to a screen has risen dramatically in the last 20 years, a new report suggests.

Children aged five to 16 spend an average of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen compared with around three hours in 1995, according to market research firm Childwise.
Teenaged boys spend the longest, with an average of eight hours.
Eight-year-old girls spend the least – three-and-a-half hours, according to the study.
Screen time is made up of time spent watching TV, playing games consoles, using a mobile, computer or tablet.

Changing times

The Connected Kids report, compiled by market researcher Childwise, has collated data from 1995 to the present day to create a comprehensive picture of children’s media habits.
Each year, its report, which is not available online, surveys around 2,000 children, aged five to 16.
It finds that teenaged girls now spend an average of seven-and-a-half- hours watching screens, compared with 3.5 hours of TV viewing in 1995.
Younger children fare slightly better – in 1995, five to 10-year-olds averaged around two-and-a-half-hours of TV.
Fast-forward to 2014 and screen time has risen to four-and-a-half hours.
Children are also now multi-screening – using more than one device at the same time, for example, watching TV while surfing the internet on a tablet or mobile so some of the screen time will be concurrent.
“The main difference from the 1990s is that then TV and magazines were the main ways for connecting kids to the media and now they have different devices from tablets, mobiles, games consoles and they have a much higher screen time,” said research executive Matthew Nevard.

Back in 1995 children’s main interaction with the media was via TV or comics like The Beano

Children’s TV viewing habits have changed dramatically, with the majority now watching television via catch-up services and YouTube rather than the traditional TV set, according to the report.
YouTube is the most popular on-demand service with more than half of respondents accessing TV and video via the site since 2013.
Paid-for on-demand services, such as Netflix, have also risen rapidly in recent years and are expected to continue to grow in popularity.
It is not great news for the terrestrial channels – BBC One has seen its audience of seven to 16-year-olds drop from over 80% in 1995 to just over 40% in 2014. ITV’s audience follows a similar trajectory.
The transition to digital, coupled with dedicated children’s channels, is another reason for the the drop in children’s viewing of the main channels with children now watching more content on dedicated channels such as CBBC, CITV, Nickelodeon and Disney.

Demanding connectivity

Children growing up now have never known a time without the internet

The study also looks at how the internet has changed the way children engage with information.
“The internet is pivotal to their lives and they are now able to access a wealth of content,” said Mr Nevard.
The internet has given children more freedom to explore their own interests rather than being tied into the content offered to them from the TV schedules or magazines.
“They can find the content that they want,” he said.
The study describes connectivity as “a fundamental need for young people now”.
“Children now don’t remember a time before the internet,” said Mr Nevard.
Ubiquitous online access is also likely to influence the way children interact with their families and “their willingness to participate in family holidays and trips out”, the report finds.

Image culture

Will all children own a virtual reality headset?

For the last 10 years, Childwise has charted the most popular websites for young people.
YouTube has remained in the top three since 2007 while Facebook has seen its appeal dip in recent years, as children turn to newer services such as Snapchat.
Children enjoy the privacy of WhatsApp and Snapchat, according to the survey, and the use of such services is also changing how they communicate.
“It reflects the image culture which has emerged, where pictures are utilised to give a better representation of current moods and or activities,” the survey said.
Google is one of the few sites to remain popular across 10 years of data with sites.

Wearable tech

The report also attempts a bit of future-gazing and predicts that in the next 10 years, children growing up will have little understanding of a world without the internet.
The internet of things – where household objects communicate and share data – will be regarded as normal, it suggests.
“Having appliances which cannot be controlled using a smartphone or some kind of online dashboard may be seen as outdated, or at least increasingly rare,” the report concludes.
It also thinks that most children will have some form of wearable technology, be it a smart watch, smart glasses or a virtual reality headset.