You can now send a letter to President Obama with a Facebook bot

President Obama is about to get a lot more mail.

The White House just became the latest Facebook account to join the social network's bot platform, with a new Messenger bot that makes sending a note to the president as easy as writing a Facebook message.

Meant to be an alternative to contacting the White House via emails or letters, the White House's Messenger bot walks you through the process of sending a message to Obama.

Of course, as with sending an email or letter to Pennsylvania Ave., sending a Facebook message doesn't guarantee the message will end up in Obama's hands (or, on his screen). Once you've finalized your note in Messenger, the bot prompts you for your contact information, including your email address and phone number, in the event that your message is one of the handful that gets a followup.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The White House hasn't said exactly how it plans to sift through the incoming messages that arrive via Facebook, but it will likely be handled by the Office of Presidential Correspondence, which chooses the 10 letters and emails Obama reads each day.

In a post on the White House's blog, White House Chief Digital Officer Jason Goldman says the Facebook bot represents "a first of its kind for any government the world over."

"Our goal is to meet people where they are. It’s why the President launched his own Twitter account and the First Lady is on Snapchat," he wrote. "It’s about creating opportunities for people to engage with their government in new and accessible ways, using the same technologies we already rely on in our daily lives."

The move is also something of a milestone for Facebook, whose bot platform is less than a year old. Since launching in the spring, the effort has grown to more than 11,000 bots. Now that Obama's White House has officially joined their ranks, Facebook may be able attract a whole new set of users to the technology.