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Facebook just moved one step closer toward making its bot ambitions a reality.

Just months after introducing the first bots for Facebook Messenger at F8, the social network now counts more than 11,000 bots on its platform, the company announced. The milestone comes alongside some major improvements to how the bots work inside of Messenger.

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The updates add more functionality -- like the ability to use GIFs and other media with bots -- and more streamlined features that will address many of the bots' early usability problems.

A new quick reply feature, for example, will surface suggested responses based on your conversation, which should help guard against the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ responses many encountered with the initial wave of Messenger bots.

Credit: Facebook

Facebook is also giving users more control over how they mange their conversations with bots, with the ability to mute a bot they don't want to see notifications from. Users can also provide feedback directly to the bot developers through star ratings and reviews.

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For the businesses and developers who create the bots, the social network is also upgrading what the bots can actually do. Businesses are now able to connect customer accounts to their Messenger accounts. If users opt in to this, the bots will be better able to create personalized experiences based on what the companies already know about their customers.

Credit: Facebook

Speaking of personalization, developers are also now able to add a little more personality to their bots, which now support GIFs, videos, audio files and other attachments.

The improvements come as Facebook’s bot platform — now more than 11,00 strong -- grows bigger than ever. And that number is set to grow even bigger, with more than 23,000 developers signed up for the company's bot technology, Facebook’s Messenger chief David Marcus said Friday.

Whether or not the improvements will increase users' engagement is another matter. The first wave of bots were largely disappointing and it doesn't appear that the bots have made the splash Facebook hoped for. There are still a significant number of users that are resistant to using the Messenger app for their messaging, much less to message bots.

But the updates do promise to bring some much needed improvements for those already making and using the bots -- maybe it will be enough to get more people to give them a try, too.

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TopicsFacebookSocial Media