After landing in hot water with developers after restricting third-party apps, Twitter is undoing the damage with the introduction of the Account Activity API. The API was specifically built to help developers that are working on customer service apps, such as chatbots.
“The Account Activity API enables developers to receive the full set of activities related to an account in real time,” Jon Cipriano, developer advocate at Twitter, wrote in a blog post. In other words, agents will have real-time insight into customers’ experiences as they engage with their brand on Twitter.
Cipriano also shared that the direct messages feature, which was previously rolled out and enables companies to reach out to consumers directly through their inboxes, is no longer in beta and is available for wide use. “Over the past year, brands like Tesco and Evernote have been using these features to provide fast and simple customer service,” Cipriano wrote.
Other customer service features currently supported by Twitter include automated quick replies, welcome messages, custom profiles, and customer feedback cards. Plus, the company is updating welcome messages to make them nameable and editable.
“This will help businesses find and use welcome messages when creating direct message cards and keep welcome messages relevant as a campaign progresses,” according to Cipriano. Though this will be more helpful for marketers, customer service agents will feel the benefits of customers having warmer, less robotic social media interactions with brands.
Additionally, developers will now also be able to incorporate read receipts and typing indicators into conversations between customer service agents and consumers to make conversations feel more “natural and alive,” Cipriano said in his post. As in everyday conversations, these signals will help people know when someone on the other end has read the message and is responding.