The best instant messaging apps for chatbots in India

Both, messaging platforms and chatbots have emerged as THE conversational business trends of 2023. Imagine what you can achieve if you combine the two! In the following, we evaluate the strengths and shortcomings of different messaging apps for chatbots in India. 

When it comes to technical innovations, India is probably one of the most receptive countries. According to Mantra Labs, it's one of the top five countries in the world to use chatbots, and a few months after launching, OpenAI's ChatGPT has already become India's favorite AI tool, as data.ai and writerbuddy.ai report.  

Instant messaging apps, on the other hand, are just starting to become popular around the world. In India, however, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct have been at the forefront of private and business communication for many years. Just as an example for how ubiquitous messaging has become in the country: according to a survey by Kantar, 68% of Indians are frustrated when businesses don't offer messaging, and 75% prefer messaging over e-mailing a business. 

As messaging and chatbots have both become vital business tools, many Indian businesses are looking to combine the two conversational trends. 

In the following, we take a look at the most promising instant messaging apps for chatbots in India to show the potential and shortcomings for businesses. 

Chatbots on WhatsApp

WhatsApp bots are rapidly gaining traction in India, offering businesses a unique opportunity to connect with their customers on a platform that is widely accepted and utilized. With over 460 million active users in India, WhatsApp provides a direct line of communication to a vast audience.

At the same time, the WhatsApp Business API allows for chatbot integration, which makes it possible to combine the messaging app with a chatbot. 

Potential of WhatsApp chatbots for businesses

While, like any bot, WhatsApp chatbots can automate processes, answer FAQs faster, or gather data for your teams to save time, there are a few features that stand out for businesses. 

• You can tap into India's most-used messaging app, and show a 24/7 presence.
• Indians are very familiar with WhatsApp, so interacting with a bot on WhatsApp will be more intuitive than on lesser known messaging apps. 
• WhatsApp bots can be connected to external company tools, such as CRM systems or inventory trackers. This opens up many possibilities from marketing to sales to customer service. 
• Depending on the tool you use, WhatsApp chatbot conversations can be archived and transferred to other platforms, which makes it easier to save and measure customer interactions.
• The click-to-WhatsApp feature on Facebook and Instagram makes it easy to guide users from these popular platforms directly into a WhatsApp chat, where a bot can take over the conversation right away. 
• WhatsApp sets their message pricing based on 24-hour windows of conversations. Answering outside that time frame also means that you pay more. If a bot can take over (part of) the conversation, you can use the conversational window more efficiently. 

Of course, there are also some shortcomings when it comes to using WhatsApp as a messaging app for your chatbot.

For one, even if WhatsApp is popular in India, users need to be motivated to find your WhatsApp business contact, or you need to invest in marketing campaigns or ads to guide users to your WhatsApp chat. 

Another hurdle is that you can only integrate WhatsApp bots through the WhatsApp Business API. 

How to integrate a bot with WhatsApp

Using a chatbot on WhatsApp requires a connection to the WhatsApp Business Platform (API). The WhatsApp Business App doesn't offer a chatbot integration. 

You can either build your own software around the API (cost-efficient, but requires IT resources) or choose an existing software from a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP). A BSP is a verified WhatsApp partner that is authorized by Meta to offer business solutions for WhatsApp. 

This is typically the easiest way to get access to a WhatsApp bot. Sinch Engage, for example, is a BSP that offers an out-of-the-box messaging solution that requires zero IT skills. And: it comes with a drag-and-drop chatbot builder where you can set up your own bot in a few minutes or use an existing template to get started even faster. 

💡How to build your own WhatsApp bot without coding

Especially if you have more complex needs (complicated flows, AI capabilities, etc.), an existing solution like Sinch Engage can easily provide that. 

Examples of WhatsApp chatbot use cases

Orion Mall is one of Bangalore's largest shopping centers. Aside from stores, it has a wide range of entertainment offers, such as movie theaters, restaurants, and special events.

In order to keep visitors up to date about current offers and make it easier for them to plan a visit to the mall, Orion Mall introduced "Genie", a WhatsApp chatbot that answers FAQs around the mall's most popular entertainment options. The possibility to reach out to Genie whenever convenient, and get the most up-to-date information on demand, has led to more visitors coming to the mall. 

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Chatbots on Facebook Messenger

The Facebook Messenger boasts a massive user base, reaching over 1.3 billion active users globally, giving businesses a wide audience to connect with. If you keep in mind that a common entry point to the Messenger from Meta is, of course, the Facebook platform itself, it enlarges the user base even more. 

In India alone, 71.2% of Indians use Facebook regularly, and, according to Meta, the ad audience in the country reached 117.6 million users in 2023.

Potential of Messenger bots for businesses

Facebook Messenger was one of the first messaging apps that allowed for chatbots, and has therefore some of the most advanced business features. 

• Messenger bots can be set up directly on the messaging app. 
• Smooth integration between Facebook and the Messenger makes it easy to guide users into a chatbot conversation, without having to switch platforms (always a pain point where you lose some users). 
• You can run click-to-chat ads on Facebook. Once users click on these ads, they're guided directly into your Messenger chat, where a bot can already get a conversation started.
• You can connect the Messenger and bot with your product catalog, which is especially interesting for e-commerce companies that want to sell through Facebook.
• Together with Meta Pay, companies can manage the entire customer journey, from marketing to sales to customer care on Facebook. 
• Easy help! When users discover your brand on Facebook and have a question, they can simply send you a message, and a bot can take over answering right away. 

While Facebook Messenger chatbots offer one of the smoothest bot experiences on a messaging app, you need to consider carefully if your target audience really uses Facebook or the Messenger. Otherwise, you invest a lot of resources into setting up a bot that won't cater to the majority of your customers.

And from a business perspective, Facebook bots only make sense if your brand has a strong Facebook presence. 

How to set up a Facebook Messenger bot

Even though the integration of a chatbot into the Messenger is easy (even if you already have an existing bot), designing it will require coding skills.

Aside from building the bot yourself, there are also special solutions that can take over that part for you. With the drag-and-drop chatbot builder from Sinch Engage, for instance, you can easily set up your bot in a few minutes, or have our team do it for you. 

Examples of Messenger chatbot use cases 

The luxury fashion brand Michael Kors works with a versatile Facebook Messenger chatbot to enhance the shopping experience. Users can ask the bot for style recommendations or take a fun fashion quiz. 

When asking for styling tips, the bot first asks users for their location, and based on that, recommends the most suitable outfits. It's a clever way to let users discover the brand and its products on their own and in a fun and engaging way. 

Chatbots on Telegram

Telegram is one of the fastest growing messaging apps in India. It's currently the second most used instant messaging app in the country. In comparison to WhatsApp, it attracts a younger and more tech-savvy audience. 

Potential of Telegram chatbots for businesses

Working with a Telegram bot can have several advantages for businesses. 

• You don't need a special set-up in order to build a Telegram bot. You can simply integrate it into your existing business channel. Telegram even provides its own bot builder, The Botfather. 
• Telegram bots can be used to send scheduled bulk messages for you (and even respond to questions).
• If you manage a Telegram group, you can use bots to help you with administrative or moderation tasks. 
• There's no extra cost for setting up a chatbot on Telegram. 

If you use Telegram as a communication channel, bots can be a great addition, especially for sending out bulk messages or managing groups.

At the same time, keep in mind that the audience you reach on Telegram skews younger and more tech-savvy than on WhatsApp. So, the expectation towards a bot might be higher. And while it's easy to set up a generic bot on Telegram, a customized chatbot that fits your specific business needs or your audience's expectations requires technical skills. 

How to set up a Telegram bot

You can either choose a pre-build Telegram bot or try to build your own with the Botfather. Keep in mind that even the pre-designed bots require some coding skills and IT resources for maintenance and troubleshooting. 

Another option is to work with a messaging solution like Sinch Engage where you get a ready-to-go Telegram software and support to build customized chatbots. 

Examples of Telegram chatbot use cases

The betting platform Dafabet uses a Telegram chatbot for lead generation. Dafabet promotes their Telegram channel on Instagram, and anybody that joins them on Telegram can participate in a raffle that is run by the bot. 

As a betting site, Dafabet has a more tech-savvy audience that also prefers more innovative platforms like Telegram and Discord. It therefore makes sense to cater to this audience on Telegram rather than on Facebook or WhatsApp. 

Chatbots on Instagram 

After WhatsApp, Instagram is India's most popular social media platform. Aside from broadcast channels, linkable product catalogs, and in-chat payments, companies also can work with chatbots on Instagram to get the most out of the conversational commerce platform. 

Potential of Instagram chatbots for businesses

Out of the three Meta platforms, Instagram probably offers the most complete one-stop-shop experience with a lot of potential for bot integration.

• Instagram is one of the few social media sites where users reach out to brands. Answering questions faster with a bot can therefore be a great way to interact with users and make your company stand out. 
• Communicating through Instagram's Direct Messenger is the most common way for users to chat with companies. Adding a chatbot can provide faster help and improve the user experience. 
• A bot that can answer product questions on Instagram has the potential to lead users from an inquiry to a purchase much faster, especially since the user never has to leave the platform. 
• With many interactive elements, Instagram is a playful platform and users are accustomed to being entertained by brands. Playing around with gamification and chatbots can therefore be a unique opportunity to grow brand awareness and gain new customers on Instagram. 

While Instagram bots offer many possibilities for businesses, the DMs can only be used if a person has a profile on Instagram. This is a slightly higher hurdle to start a conversation compared to the Facebook Messenger, that works with Facebook as well as independently, or even compared to WhatsApp, which is already installed on almost every smartphone in India. 

In addition, Instagram bots require access to the Instagram Messenger API, which makes them harder to integrate than Telegram or Messenger bots. 

How to set up an Instagram bot

Instagram chatbots require the Messenger API for Instagram. This can be easily done with a Meta Business Solution Provider. Sinch Engage, for example, doesn't only offer chatbot integrations for WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, but also for Instagram Direct Messenger. 

The setup is very easy. You simply build your bot flow with the drag-and-drop chatbot builder, and then choose the right messaging app for your chatbots. 

Examples of Instagram chatbot use cases

The international beauty retailer, Sephora, has a very strong brand presence on Instagram. Naturally, a lot of users reached out to them through Instagram's DMs. This became increasingly hard to manage efficiently, as Sephora didn't have a special customer care team or solution for Instagram. So, if customers wanted a fast answer, they were told on Instagram that they should call or e-mail Sephora. 

In order to provide a more streamlined customer experience, the beauty brand decided to combine their customer engagement platform with a chatbot on Instagram. This allowed them to answer customer queries much faster, but also gave them measurable insights into the conversation history or response times. 

Thanks to this setup, Sephora achieved a 15% decrease in average responses per conversation across all channels after implementing the Messenger API for Instagram, reducing time spent per inquiry and increasing agent efficiency. 

Potential of messaging apps for chatbots in India

Summing up, combining instant messaging apps with chatbots can improve the customer experience while at the same time reduce the workload for your team, and improve availability. 

Due to their popularity, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and Instagram Direct Messenger are the most promising messaging apps for chatbots in India. Depending on your target group, platform presence, business model, and required chatbot features, one platform might be better for you than the other. 

Make sure to carefully evaluate the best touchpoints for your customers and your team to ensure the right platform fit. 

And: you can always choose to integrate chatbots on multiple messaging apps as well. Sinch Engage offers chatbot integrations with WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram Direct Messenger, Telegram, Apple Messages for Business, and Viber.

Adding chatbots to one or multiple platforms on Sinch Engage requires no additional setup or effort. This gives you a chance to truly tap into the conversational trends of the hour, and get the most out of chatbots on messaging apps for your business.

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