Google-owned API.ai is still the most popular, though.
Facebook, Google and Microsoft are currently locked in a battle over whose bot platform will have more developers, and currently, it's Google who's winning. But it's not that simple. Just before releasing its chat app Allo, Google acquired API.ai, a bot-building platform through which developers can make bots for various platforms.
API.ai is currently being used by 60,000 developers, according to VentureBeat, and looking it that way, Google is leading the charge. But considering that it has just only acquired the start-up, it’s easy to argue that the company didn’t really do much to hit that milestone. Facebook and Microsoft, on the other hand, have been developing their own platforms, and in a battle between these two, it’s Microsoft who’s currently holding the lead. Both companies have announced their bot-building platforms back in April, and after the first few months, both platforms have been in use by some 20,000 developers.
Now, Microsoft is pulling ahead with more than 45,000 developers, while Facebook is at roughly 34,000 developers. VentureBeat cited Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who said the key to success is being an open platform. “We’re taking an approach where any bot you build is not captive to any one conversational canvas. It’s available everywhere,” he said on stage Monday at Microsoft Ignite.
“Pretty much everyone today who is building applications, whether they be mobile apps or desktop apps or websites, will build bots as the new interface,” he told the audience at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partnership Conference, in July.