Will the Messenger Platform Bring New Opportunities for App Engagement and User Retention?

The recent F8 Developer’s Conference has left developers enthralled to the new horizons of app engagement and user retention. Furthermore, it was solely dedicated to the app developer community.

Hence, on a side note: Thanks Mark, it means a lot!

Coming back, the F8 has brought us on highly personalized and targeted platform and a tool that brings 1 billion user’s worth of insanely detailed data for the analytics. I’m talking about the Messenger Platform and an Analytics tool.

Both of are treasure troves of untapped potential for boosting user engagement and tracking and monitoring your efforts.

This post will discuss them in detail and list some of the opportunities that all developers must leverage for their existing and upcoming apps!

Messenger Platform — The New Rival to App Stores?

Facebook developed the messenger as a standalone app for mobile in 2014, making the app more flexible to change. The F8 then made two stunning revelations:

The Messenger boasts over 600 million users per month, which means that the apps that our community creates will become a part and parcel of the Messenger. Users can easily share videos, stickers, audio, and more. Think of the transformation this will have!

First of all, just think of the Messenger as the ultimate leadership board where developers do not have to ask users to connect to and link to their accounts.

Secondly, think of the potential this will have for app discovery. The Conference announced that all third-party content that is shared on the Messenger is attributed to the app. There is also a download button within the Messenger!

Sharing content within messenger is nothing less than one user giving a review (or a star rating) for the app! Furthermore, each message also has a social recommendation built into it. If leveraged properly (quality content), imagine the number of installs this can have.

Thirdly, Facebook may be heading into the App Store arena soon enough. The new Messenger is already offering a secondary channel (and arguably MORE powerful than actual app store ones) for featuring your apps. The Messenger’s “more” will allow developers to showcase their apps to the 600 million users!

As Facebook opens up to wider developers community, newer possibilities are likely to emerge allowing us engage users better, gain better following, and retain them for longer all the while increasing our reach — with the new analytics .

Facebook App Analytics — One Social Analytics to Rule Them All

Facebook also announced a new App Analytics tool during F8.

Free and powerful, the FB App Analytics has the Big-Data worth 1 Billion users from across the globe. Who’s up for a bet that existing tools are already running for cover?

Some of the interesting features include tracking user installs instead of per device installs.

Our target audience often switches between devices, however most analytics track devices instead of users. The App Analytics tracks activity by user, and hence offers greater insights into user interaction and engagement.

Secondly, the App Analytics offers Ad network attribution. Hence, we can categorize users based on the ads that brought them to the app. This allows us to track the campaigns that have offered us high value users compared to the less successful ones.

Thirdly, we gain access highly targeted app ad campaigning. Facebook’s big-data has extremely detailed profiles for its users, and can easily find users that have similar, insanely similar attributes to the most engaged users of our app!

In Conclusion — Its Beginning

A new chapter in app targeting and user engagement and retention may be beginning here. It remains to be seen where it leads.

This blog post is based in the advice given by successful app entrepreneurs in the App Entrepreneurs and Marketers Group. Stay tuned for more informative and insightful posts from us!

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