Facebook's New Virtual Assistant Will Make Restaurant Reservations For You

It will also book you an Uber to the restaurant.

Facebook wants to make restaurant reservations for you. According to Wired, the tech company has launched its version of a virtual assistant — similar to Apple's Siri — called M. Currently available through Facebook's Messenger feature, and for now, only in the Bay Area, the virtual assistant can make reservations for users and can even book Uber cars to and from restaurants.

To use the service, users press a small button at the bottom of the Messenger app to send a request to M. The software will then "decode the natural language, ask followup questions in the message thread, and send updates as the task is completed." In internal tests, M has also complete requests like organizing dinner parties and "tracking down an unusual beverage in New Orleans." The service is free and "will be available to all Facebook Messenger users eventually."

Facebook isn't the only tech giant upping its stake in restaurant-related services. Amazon is secretly testing restaurant delivery in Seattle. This is Amazon's first full-blown foray into restaurant delivery, but the company previously launched a takeout service in the city that works with 129 restaurants.

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