As tech companies race to make the best virtual assistant, many have understood that adding in a little humor is key to retaining users. If asked to tell a joke, Siri and Cortana will give you a few (really bad) jokes. Virtual assistants like Google Assistant can also offer entertainment in other ways by providing small games you can play directly with the assistant or on the Internet. But Facebook M is not yet a true virtual assistant and can’t be interacted with directly. This means that you cannot ask it to provide jokes, set a timer, or search for restaurants nearby. The future of Facebook M might allow two-way interactions to occur, but for now it is limited in what it can do.
The Old And New Facebook M
The original beta version of Facebook M allowed users to interact directly with the assistant and could fulfill numerous different commands. It could even set appointments or make dinner reservations at a restaurant. However, the beta version was largely human-run and not fully backed by AI software. To the disappointment of many, the beta version of Facebook M couldn’t scale up once it was released to millions of users. Instead, the messenger assistant became integrated into the Facebook messenger app. It now appears during conversations to suggest emojis, help to make plans, or start a group poll. It has little entertainment value except when suggesting emojis, particularly when the people in the conversation are joking around.
Virtual Assistant Jokes
If or (hopefully) when Facebook M becomes a true virtual assistant, one task it will need to complete is being able to tell jokes. Facebook will hopefully look to other assistants for inspiration on what types of jokes it will tell. Google assistant, for instance, hired writers from The Onion and Pixar to help write family-friendly jokes. Here are a few jokes that the assistant can tell you:
Did you hear the one about the chicken crossing the road?
It was poultry in motion!
What do you get when you put a vest on an alligator?
An investigator.
I have a pet tree.
It’s kind of like having a pet dog, but the bark is much quieter.
Hopefully when Facebook M moves towards being more of a virtual assistant, it will integrate slightly less eye rolling jokes than these other assistants.
The Best Facebook Messenger Bots
Although Facebook M itself is limited in what it can do, Facebook Messenger can provide entertainment through its use of bots. Businesses or other small app developers have designed over a thousand bots that can be accessed through the messenger. The bots are designed to help users carry out purchases, get the weather, and provide entertainment. Although there is only so much entertainment that can be had through the messenger, many developers have become creative and have even created games with stories. Some of the most entertaining bots include MojiHunt, Dad Joke Bot, and Whatson. So although Facebook M itself doesn’t tell jokes, you can still get jokes from the messenger from a host of different bots.
Will Facebook M Ever Be a Personal Assistant?
Mark Zuckerberg has big plans for the future of Facebook. It includes integrating artificial intelligence and virtual reality into the company and pushing Facebook to be available to everyone in the world. Although the beta version of Facebook M started out as a true personal (and partly virtual) assistant, scaling program up to a wider audience caused this feature to be dropped. Although there hasn’t yet been any word on the future of Facebook M, the push for artificial intelligence will no doubt affect its design and usability. It is likely that Facebook is secretly analyzing the data they collected from the original beta users in order to create a better virtual assistant. It’s entirely possible that in the future, Facebook M will become the best virtual assistant, equipped with sophisticated language capabilities and knee slapping jokes.