Facebook will not stop until the entire world downloads Messenger, and the social media company has continued tacking on new features to what was supposed to be a “cleaner” chat service.

Now it seems that the next addition may be an assistant service called Moneypenny, which according to sources speaking to The Information, will not be a virtual assistant like Siri or Cortana but will instead connect users with real people who will assist with “researching and ordering products and services, among other tasks.”

The name, which is taken from the well known James Bond character, is apparently a codename only at the moment, but sources speaking to The Information said that the feature is already far along in development and is being tested internally by Facebook employees.

The concierge industry has made a bit of a comeback in recent years thanks to the smartphone revolution, as people realize that as useful as tools like Siri are, they can’t always compete with real people for getting certain things done.

While the details are spares on exactly what sort of tasks Moneypenny will help users perform, there have been other concierge-like apps released. Some hotels have their own branded concierge apps that are curated if not run by actual employees, including an app for The Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts.

The Ritz-Carlton app bills itself as “your reservationist, local guide and on property concierge all in one,” and it allows users to make reservations, check in, order room services, and get sightseeing advice, all without the hassle of human interaction.

Facebook’s service sounds like it would be a little more hands-on than that, however, making it more similar to a service like Magic, which allows users to submit questions that will be answered by real people.

Moneypenny would be yet another reason for people to download Messenger, as if they had not already been forced to do that in the first place. Other features added to Messenger over the last year include video calling and peer-to-peer payments, and Facebook is currently in the process of turning Messenger into its own app platform that would allow third-party developers to add even more features to the service.

Photo by melenita2012