ManyChat has been rapidly growing, constantly adding new features, tools, and channels. The challenge is that it’s impossible to cover all the niches needed by customers while maintaining focus on the core direction.
To address this, we planned the Dev Program with two main goals: allowing developers to create apps that add value and empower the core product while covering the needs of smaller user audiences that don't fit into ManyChat's general development direction.
Our first goal was to provide developers with the opportunity to create a simple dev version of their apps (meaning code changes immediately appear on all accounts where the app is installed).
Apps section starting screen for developers
Our JSON code editor will soon be able to highlight logic errors.
App installation screen
App Action in the list of Action options. ("Action" means that when automation reaches this step in ManyChat, a request will be sent to the external platform.)
The next major step was app publication. Once an app is published, developers' clients can install the public version, and the app owner does not need to worry about breaking client automations during development since the dev and public versions of the app are separated.
Created app both with dev and public versions.
Of course, We faced failures too, one being 'Triggers'. Triggers were meant to activate something in ManyChat when a specific event occurred on an external platform (e.g., sending a discount message after an Amazon purchase). Despite our expectations, this feature did not gain popularity.
App trigger in the triggers selection pop-up
Trigger step on the canvas, where you set up your marketing automation.