Facebook Inc.’s Messenger service is a focal point of its social network with more than 1.3 billion monthly active users globally. Today, the company introduced new tools aimed at enabling businesses to engage that massive audience more effectively.

The first addition is a chatbotlike tool that can automate the first few questions in a customer conversation. An online retailer, for instance, could configure it to ask shoppers what product they wish to buy and when they want it delivered. Depending on their answer, Messenger can either loop a human customer support agent into the chat session or inform users that the item they wish to buy is out of stock.

“Businesses can continue the conversation with prospects directly in Messenger and integrate with existing CRM tools to seamlessly to track leads,” Ted Helwick, Facebook’s director of product for Messenger Business, detailed in the announcement.

The other new business feature being rolled out is a native appointment booking tool. It enables companies to integrate their external scheduling software with Messenger and give customers the option of reserving time slots directly through the service.

The appointment scheduling tool is currently in beta, while the conversation automation engine will become generally available by the end of the week. Later this year, they’ll be joined by new analytics features that will enable companies to better monitor sales-related events such as e-commerce orders.

Facebook’s plans to streamline business interactions in Messenger also include changes the core interface. Specifically, the social network intends to gradually phase out the service’s Discover section, which groups business pages with games. The goal is to put a bigger emphasis on the other channels companies can use to engage Messenger users, such as Facebook’s embedded chat plugins for websites. 

“We will put more investment into tools to connect people and businesses — including updates to m.me links, web plugins, various entry points across our family of apps, as well as ad products — that lead to Messenger,” Facebook’s Helwick wrote.

Bringing more businesses to Messenger is just one of the ways the company is working to monetize the service. In the long term, Facebook plans to let Messenger users make purchases and send money to contacts with its controversial Libra cryptocurrency.

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