In a previous post, we reviewed and compared various popular bot frameworks commonly used by developers keen on building chatbots with predefined functions. We briefly mentioned the aspect of bot development platforms without going into details.

Chatbot Platforms are computer-generated systems incorporated with complex natural language processors (NLP) which enable the softwares to conduct converstaions in the same way a human would. These systems are designed to understand all kinds of input and respond appropriately.

Before highlighting some of the popular bot development platfroms to choose from, we'll review some platform features that are common amongst them. Although, some of the features vary based on the complexity of each platform there are some standard functionalities that can only be performed by incorporation of standard features like the following:

• Natural Language Processors: These processors work to ensure chatbots can recognize and understand various langauge inputs, interpret and respond to requests.
• Machine Learning: To keep up with language evolution, platforms integrate this feature than enables the system to receive updates from dictionaries, algorithms and other intelligence boosters.
• Predictive Programming: This feature enables chatbots to suggest viable answers by consolidating information gathered from conversations with other users.
• Context Coherence: This enables chatbots to maintain flow long or other times, winded conversations without losing the understanding of the subject and still provide appropriate responses.

There's several other features we could mention but for this post we will highlight some of favorite chatbot platforms that have optimized these features in their system design and are suitable for the development of a chatbot for your business or personal use.

Telegram Bots

The popular Messaging platform launched their Bots service as third party application that run inside Telegram. Users can interact with bots by sending them messages, commands and/or inline requests. The company recently open-sourced their chatbot code, making it easy for third-parties to integrate and create bots of their own.

The Telegram API can send customized notifications, news, reminders, or alerts. Users can also integrate the API with other popular apps such as YouTube, Github or email for a unique customer experience.

I've previously covered how to beuild a Telegram bot for your business and if you'd like to get started, then this post is for you!

Facebook Bots (ChatFuel, ManyChat)

ManyChat is a game-changing no-code bot development platform that makes it super easy to create a Facebook Messenger Bot. It is very popular among marketers and salespeople because of its integrated growth tools. Developing a ManyChat bot is like creating an email workflow or sequence made even easier by its drag-and-drop builder. The platform is easy to connect to a Facebook page and runs just as easily. It is free for up to 500 subscribers and then starts its a paid plan from $10/month.

Need another Facebook bot? Perhaps consider ChatFuel, a great chatbot platform for the Facebook Messenger. It works by letting users link to external sources through plugins. Chatfuel’s clients range from small and medium businesses to the world’s most recognizable brands. Customers are using bots to increase sales, improve conversions, qualify leads, and automate support on Facebook.

IBM Watson

IBM Watson is the most popular customized chatbot builder. It's a developer friendly platform that quickly builds and deploys chatbots and virtual agents across variety of channels. According to a research by Mindbowser it is the go-to platform for 61% businesses. It's easy to begin with and to use as well. It has integrated NLP capabilities and can comprehend multiple languages. The Watson Virtual Assistant that comes with the platform can be used to answer spontaneous user queries and can be customized to the needs of an individual business.

Watson provides SDKs (Software Development Kits) for Node.Js, Java, Python, iOS, and Unity. It easy to start development and allows to deploy bots on messaging platforms, mobile devices, and even robots. It also offers entreprise grade features that provides users with a reliable infrastructure that scales over a wide array of networks and environments.

Amazon Lex

Amazon Lex is an AWS service available to any developer for building sophiticated, Natural Language Understanding (NLU) conversational interfaces for applications using voice and text into your new and existing applications. With Amazon Lex, no deep learning expertise is necessary — to create a bot, you just specify the basic conversation flow in the Amazon Lex console. Amazon Lex manages the dialogue and dynamically adjusts the responses in the conversation. Using the console, you can build, test, and publish your text or voice chatbot. You can then add the conversational interfaces to bots on mobile devices, web applications, and chat platforms (for example, Facebook Messenger). Developers can use it create their own personal assistants that have powerful machine learning capabilities.

AWS SDKs can be used to develop bots on iOS, Android, Java, JavaScript, Python, .Net, Java, JS, CLI, Ruby, PHP, Go, and C++. Hence the bots can be deployed on mobile, web, desktop, and even IoT platforms. It is possible to programmatically add sample utterances, create slots, add slot values, and so forth. Not just that you can programmatically manage the entire build, test, and deployment process. Lex has a pay-as-you-use model based on a number of requests - $0.004/ voice and $0.00075/text. Thus, the cost for 1,000 voice requests is $4.00, and that for 1,000 texts is $0.75.

Conclusion

With numerous advancements and tools being created to make the process easy, making a chatbot does not seem out of the question. So, if you are thinking about jumping on the chatbot bandwagon it can truly save you enourments of time while maximizing the sales and marketing efforts of your business.