Facebook launches new messaging tools and services for brands

Facebook

Facebook said that the company is introducing new ways for companies to find potential customers and chat with them through its applications, in its quest to become an online shopping destination.

Karandeep Anand, vice president of business products at Facebook, said the new features will help Facebook, which is already a leader in digital advertising, deliver personalized shopping experiences to its users.

Companies will now be able to add a button to their Instagram profiles to allow people to send a WhatsApp message to the company with a single click.

Anand said the WhatsApp integration is particularly important for customers in countries like India and Brazil, where the Facebook-owned messaging app is widely used. Facebook said it would start testing brands' ability to send emails through the Facebook Business Suite. It is a feature that allows companies to manage their presence through social media applications, in order to simplify how companies reach customers.

It will also test new work accounts to allow employees to manage business pages without having to log in with their personal accounts, and the new work tools come a day after WhatsApp began testing a new feature in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to allow users to find stores and services through an in-app directory for the first time as part of an effort to promote e-commerce in the service.