Inmoji Goes Contextual Commerce With Brand Bots

A technology startup is looking to put mobile messaging into context.

On Friday (April 8), Inmoji — which creates branded, interactive emojis for integration into consumer messaging — announced a new feature, Inmoji Brand Bots.

Described in a press release as an extension of Inmoji’s current offering, the new, shareable Brand Bots provide brands with a splash page that is contained within a clickable icon. The intent is to allow marketers to generate more contextual commerce, as well as consumer insights through data.

“Consumers already access Inmoji’s rich media campaigns at the exact contextual moment in their organic conversations around content and brand,” said Michael Africk, cofounder and CEO of Inmoji, in the release. “This is the same opportune moment in those peer-to-peer conversations when consumers will be far more likely to interact with a bot and appreciate the utility of the experience. Streamlining conversational commerce and adding real world color to messages is what Inmoji is all about.”

The platform-agnostic Inmoji Brand Bots will support in-app purchases, discovery of unique brand experiences and entertainment and capture of real-time customer insights. Existing brand partners of Inmoji — including NBCUniversal, iTunes, Interscope Records, Starbucks, Ticketmaster, MovieTickets.com and Walmart — have the option to add the new feature to their Inmoji campaigns.

Currently in private beta testing, Inmoji Brand Bots are expected to become available to the general market in Q3 of this year.

Also later this year, the release adds, Inmoji is going to release a standalone messaging app for users who wish to use and share bots.