Facebook Messenger is about to include games into its service offerings. Currently testing in New Zealand is Instant Games. This is aimed at rivals Google and Apple with a game platform of their own.
Google's Android and Apple iOS has been platforms for games on mobile phones. Facebook cannot compete with them because it does not have a mobile phone OS. However, with Instant Games inside the Facebook Messenger, they can leverage their user base to run games. This would also help Google create a game platform or ecosystem within Messenger.
According to TechCrunch, Instant Games is already being tested in New Zealand with a game called "Shuffle Cats Mini". The game is by King.com, the creator of Candy Crush. Expect that other game developers are also ready to put their games into the pipeline.
Earlier in April, 2016, TechCrunch also published that Facebook acquired personnel form Spaceport.io. These developers were mainliy into HTML5 development. Spaceport.io continues operations using Adobe Air as their platform of choice. Spaceport.io is noted for creating tools enabling developers to code using Javascript, and have it run on all smartphone operating systems. The resulting port would be hybrid HTML5 and native code, but running with a native code performance level.
Instant Games will be enabled to run initially on Facebook Messenger. However, because it uses HTML5, it can conceivably be able to run on any other platform, not just chat apps, but also on browsers and web pages. Currently, Instant Games has not been officially launched, and Facebook has not given any word on when it will be released. When it does, expect that one of the features would be the ability to share game scores and screenshots on Facebook.
Recently, Facebook reached a milestone 30,000 chatbots on Messenger. These chatbots allow for automated responses for corporate or support calls. As chatbots become more sophisticated, this number is also expected to increase.