Facebook Messenger's new tools to aid governments in the battle against Coronavirus Pandemic

For a couple of years, the world is facing one trouble after another. But the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has surpassed everything we've ever faced. Millions of people are getting ill and many have already died due to this disease. The world is now on its knees and the economy is in tatters.

In these times of crisis, the tech companies have come together to help people in every way possible- by collaborating with research and health organizations, bringing modifications in their apps by creating information portals to ensure that people get the right information only. Social media platforms have also endeavored to block any misinformation to surface regarding this pandemic.

Facebook has been on controversial grounds for a couple of years due to several scandals. But since February 2020, Facebook has been seen making a lot of effort by improvising its fact-checking policies and ensuring content monitoring to spread accurate news.

Now, Facebook has announced some initiative measures for its messaging platform, the Facebook Messenger. As with other video-streaming, gaming, business, and educational applications, the usage of this Messenger app has increased to multiple folds during these past few weeks of global lockdown and quarantine. It is understandable because people are home-bound and social distancing measures are being implemented worldwide. To communicate with each other, digital platforms like WhatsApp and Messenger are coming in handy. Recently, WhatsApp collaborated with WHO in which a chat box to provide right details, precautionary measures and other authentic information regarding coronavirus, plus, the app has also introduced a search feature to verify facts from Google search.

Now, Facebook Messenger is partnering with Devpost to organize a hackathon, with programmers, graphic designers, software engineers, developers, project managers and all the related people to create more ingenious and effective information and communication tools regarding coronavirus pandemic to help governments, United Nations and health organizations. This sprint-like Hackfest event is going to help people get the most updated information covering all aspects of this serious pandemic through innovative tools and technology that will not only help in the medical field but will also help in messaging services as they are important to keep people calm and well-informed.


All the participants in this hack-fest will tailor solutions regarding various issues, will receive unique access to Facebook Live tutorials with product experts, educational materials, and messenger related content to support their creativity. Winners will receive mentoring from Facebook engineers and will be given a chance to attend F8 2021 and an opportunity to take part in the F8 hackathon.

Messenger is going to launch bots with automated responses to the queries and will address the general concerns of people. They will guide to broadcast correct information more effectively through the Messenger app. This technology will also help in switching from automated bots to a conversation with live representatives when needed.

Some of these services are already being used by various health organizations globally in collaboration with Botmaker.com to address the public concern regarding coronavirus.



Read next: Instagram's New Co-Watching Feature Promotes Social Distancing Among Other Updates
Previous Post Next Post