Sharpay analytical report: share button bot for top social messengers

Dear Community!

As we have announced it before, we analysed all popular world messengers about the possibility of developing and adding our Sharpay sharing buttons to groups, chats and channels. Today, we would like to share with you our detailed analysis.

For each social network, this can be done only through the development of the bot, we studied their API and user cases.

1) Telegram. First of all, we analyzed Telegram, one of the most popular, fast-growing and promising instant messengers from a position of loyalty to cryptocurrencies. We studied their API and user cases for bots. A channel can have an unlimited number of subscribers. The bot can generate a unique link for each post, and let users to read, leave comments and share it. Result: possible, already developed, waiting for our release.

2) WeChat. We studied the API of WeChat and the capabilities of adding Sharpay share buttons bot to groups. WeChat allows users to create a group chat with up to 500 members. WeChat API does not have any direct support on adding Sharpay share buttons. However, WeChat shut down a 3rd party blockchain app in 2018, technically it is possible for us to develop our Sharpay sharing bot, but it will be impossible for implementation. Result: impossible to use, refuse to develop (as of June 2019).

3) KakaoTalk. We looked at the structure of KakaoTalk API. We studied this in the context of sharing and adding Sharpay share buttons. We found out some limitations of KakaoTalk. A public group chat can support up to 1500 users and a user can only create 10 public group chats. Only personal chats can use chat bots, and chat bots cannot be added to public group chats. Because of that we cannot apply the same Telegram scheme that we are developing to KakaoTalk. Thus, it does not allow us to develop a user-friendly sharing bot for KakaoTalk. Result: impossible to develop (as of June 2019).

4) VK Messenger. For VK Messenger, we found out that bots can be added to personal chats, communities or group chats. One group chat can have a maximum of 500 users. Chat bots support share buttons, but users can only use them at the chat menu level, no share buttons can be added to the messages shared in a group. Also, all posts shared in a group are limited to its group users, all chats are private within a group. Those restrictions do not allow us to make a full-featured bot for VK Messenger. Result: impossible to develop (as of June 2019).

5) Facebook Messenger. Chat bots only work in communicating with personal chats, and they cannot be added to group chats. One group chat can have a maximum of 250 users. A bot can send messages only via chat extensions, but the messages cannot add share buttons. There are no direct links for the posts shared in a group chat, therefore, users cannot comment or react to a post like Telegram. Also, the posts shared in a group chat are for its group users, it limits the ability to share posts to other users outside the group. Because of that, we cannot develop a good bot for Facebook Messenger. Result: impossible to develop (as of June 2019).

6) WhatsApp. Chat bot feature is only available to WhatsApp business accounts. A WhatsApp group chat can have a maximum number of 256 users. The chat bot can communicate with users in private messages and group chats. However, it is not possible to add our Sharpay share buttons to the messages. Result: impossible to develop (as of June 2019).

7) Viber. In Viber, there are two types of groups (public account and community) and the maximum number of participants of a group is 250. We can add a sharing bot to a public account, but public account is not for everyone. Since 2017, only large companies and popular personalities can open a public account. Everyone can open a community account, but bots cannot be added to a community as a member. Because not everyone can create a public account and community cannot add bot, we do not see any benefits to develop a sharing bot. Result: possible, but not relevant, refuse to develop (as of June 2019).

Summary: as of June 2019, only Telegram meets our development criteria for our sharing bot. Only for Telegram we can make a full-featured sharing bot with a user-friendly interface. We have already developed our Sharpay Telegram share bot, stay tuned and wait for the release!

In Sharing We Trust!
Sharpay.io Team