Private messaging is an ideal medium to do the obvious – open a dialogue and conduct a conversation. In fact, 59% of all US social sharing now occurs in private channels. But while people are happy to chat to their mates on platforms like Facebook Messenger, how can brands get involved?

Although India’s e-commerce market is set to grow by 67% in 2016, brick-and-mortar retail is still preferred by most people. Yellow Messenger is now attempting to bridge the gap between online and offline with an app that lets consumers engage local shops via a chat service on their smartphone.

More than 600 million people use Facebook Messenger each month to send texts, photos and videos. In March 2015 at the company’s F8 developer conference, Zuckerberg announced that you’ll soon be chatting to your favourite brand via the platform as easily as you do your best mate.

Canvas8’s 2016 Expert Outlook on communications explores whether ‘impermanent networks’ will be the platforms of choice in the future, if people are becoming more careful about what they share on social media, and how brands can listen to consumers to better suit their needs.