Pizza Hut is making ordering easy thanks to its new Messenger chatbot

By Christian de Looper July 12, 2016

messenger paypal facebook — Image used with permission by copyright holder

When you have a craving for pizza, it doesn’t matter how you get it, you just need it fast. Pizza Hut is aiming to make that as easy as possible, and has announced a bot that makes ordering pizza as simple as chatting with someone, or something, on Facebook.

The goal of the bot is not only to make ordering pizza easier, but also to help improve accuracy, and eliminate wait times.

“The new Pizza Hut social ordering platform is another example of making it easy for our customer to order their favorites from Pizza Hut,” said Pizza Hut chief digital officer Baron Concors at the MobileBeat 2016 conference. “We are constantly pursuing ways to simplify our ordering experience. This platform allows our consumers to quickly order or get information where they are already spending a great deal of their time.”

The bot isn’t just for ordering pizza — it can also answer questions about pizza and Pizza Hut deals. According to the company, the bot will help give an extra layer of customization when it comes to ordering pizza. It will even offer specialized menu items that are localized to individual stores. And, once you’ve completed your order, you’ll get an email from Pizza Hut confirming that the order is correct.

Chatbots in general have started taking off as a new way for customers and businesses to interact, and Pizza Hut is just one of many companies taking advantage of new platforms like Facebook Messenger. Facebook Messenger itself obviously isn’t new, but support for bots within Messenger is — it was only launched in April of this year.

Pizza Hut will also be competing in this space with Domino’s, which already allows users to order pizza using the Amazon Echo and by text — although there doesn’t seem to be a Domino’s bot just yet. The new chatbot, which will also be released on Twitter, will be available in August.

Editors' Recommendations

Apple finally makes it harder to stalk Android users with its new Tracker Detect app

Topics

Christian de Looper

Contributor

Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

Social Media

Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.

In a post on its main rival -- X (formerly Twitter) -- Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.

Computing

How to make a GIF from a YouTube video

woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Social Media

I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened

In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.

Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.