API.AI “Small Talk” is now Open! Why is it a Really Big Deal?

Here at BotCube we’ve built a lot of bots during the last year using both api.ai and wit.ai as NLP providers. Most of the time we’ve been choosing api.ai because of one reason — module called “Small Talk”. It allows you to easily import a lot of predefined answers for simple questions and phrases like “Hi!“, “How are you?“, “Are you robot?“, “What’s your hobby?“, “How old are you?” and many-many more (about one hundred actually).

A week ago guys from api.ai made their Small Talk NLP module open and in this article our I’m going to tell you why it’s a really big deal for all the bot builders. The article was also just featured on Chatbots Magazine.

⌚️ 6 min read (kinda long, but totally worth it)

https://chatbotsmagazine.com/api-ai-small-talk-is-now-open-source-why-is-it-a-big-deal-a39c54f89d85

Amazon is exploring new ways to reward their developers

They have quietly launched a new program that will directly pay skill developers building high-quality Alexa skills. Today, however, Amazon is selecting skills from those voice apps categorized in the “Games, Trivia, & Accessories” category only.

As more developers join the program and find out how much they’re earning, it will be easier to figure out what sort of scale Amazon is using to determine its payouts.

The program begins this month, and developers will be alerted by an email from the Alexa team if their skill qualifies for inclusion.

⌚️ 3 min read (short one)

https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/16/amazon-begins-rewarding-top-performing-alexa-skill-developers-with-direct-payments/

P.S. If you're looking for different ways to monetize your bot, take a look at the Monetization section here.

Google is Launching a New Service to Fix Chatbots

TechCrunch has learned that Google has developed a new service called Chatbase, which provides analytics and suggestions for how to “fix” bot experiences to make them better for users.

With Chatbase, Google is moving on a couple of themes. First of all, it is tapping into one of the biggest recent developments in the world of messaging apps: chatbots, or automatic response systems that sit on top of existing messaging platforms like Slack and Facebook’s Messenger. These tap into innovations in areas like natural language processing and machine learning to provide information and much more to users in a chat messaging format — a new way for users to interact with organizations and apps.

In short, Google is filling a gap: Chatbots need fixing.

⌚️4 mins read (kinda short)

https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/17/google-chatbase-chatbot-analytics/

🚕 Take on Whatsapp bots by following BMW example!

Big brands are becoming more & more interested in chatbots. And now BMW turns in too!

They decided to allow interested parties to follow the latest news in the DTM championship with the bot.

Simply say, it lets people learn more about BMW’s car for the 2017 season of DTM, along with the history of the brand in the sport.

⌚ 2 min read(really short)

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/bmw-introduces-whatsapp-chatbot-for-dtm-activity-and-results-it-s-easy-to-use-117424.html

Payments are here!! 😍

https://telegram.org/blog/payments

More updates from Telegram. Love that!

For dessert, we've made Instant Views into a platform. And now we're launching a $200,000 crowdsourcing competition. Join us in our quest to make the entire internet available in the Instant View format.

Also, don't forget to check out the new settings: different styles and fonts and an auto-night mode for Instant View pages.

https://telegram.org/blog/instant-view-contest-200K

How to bring 300K+ users to your bot almost for free

Do you still think that only super complex bots with great UX and a lot of effort put into it get traction? That's not true.

Are you still sure that you need to spend thousands of dollars on advertising to bring traffic to your bot? That's not true again.

Here is the story from the founder of MojiHunt - “The Most Stupid Game for Facebook Messenger” which got 12K comments, 31K likes, 7.3K shares, 1.9M views for his super simple emoji game just for 20$.

⌚️ 3 min read (super short)

https://chatbotsmagazine.com/mojihunt-chatbot-story-250k-users-and-17-million-emojis-in-1-month-13950db9e6f8

💡 Get some fresh ideas from the latest update of Skype platform!

A year ago the Skype platform was officially open up with the debut of Skype chatbots.

First impression? Mehh..

Since then, everything has changed. Now they have rich GUI, video bots, add-inns (aka chat extensions), Skype chat on every website, bot payments, discovery via Harmon Kardon Invoke, and many more.

Here's a big wrap-up from Skype about everything Microsoft announced at Build 2017 conference. Must read to understand where the market is going.

⌚️ 5 min (must read)

https://blogs.skype.com/news/2017/05/10/skype-brings-developers-and-consumers-closer-together-at-build-2017/

💰 Up to $100,000 in Funding to Empower the World’s Poorest!

If you're up to build a funded chatbot, the impressive Jake Kendall is looking to fund some prototypes and build out the best for rollout.

DFS is accepting proposals through May 31 to fund chatbot development that, like the DoNotPay bot, help people from the poorest countries apply for assistance, file complaints or make appointments.

If you think you can design and deliver the equivalent of DoNotPay for more basic needs, fill out the form  by May 31st.

Hope that helps! 🙌

⌚️ 3 min read (kinda short)

https://chatbotsmagazine.com/chatbot-challenge-up-to-100-000-in-funding-to-empower-the-worlds-poorest-b1f3e387d304

🕷 Marvel's Spider Man has a new bot!!

Fictional characters are becoming a hot space for bots. Humani, Barbie, Doctor Strange, Hearthstone, Doctor Who, it's really booming!

This new #botoftheweek from Marvel shares action shots from the comic book and directs you to answer questions and decipher riddles. It also asks you to share your location, so the bot can tell you where to go to “report for duty” to fight an evil army (a.k.a direct you to a local store where you can buy the comic book 😉).

👏 Great concept, good UX, nice content. 9/10.

Chat with the bot - https://m.me/spiderman/

👏 Improve your bot design changing a few words!

Chatbot design today is like web design in 1996. Crappy. But it's just the beginning.

We need more examples, more good cases.

Look at the image below. The bot on the right has personality, sets user expectations about its scope, and, by providing examples, clarifies what the next step is.

Curious to learn more tricks? Read the article, really helpful.

⌚️ 4 min read (good one)

https://blog.botsociety.io/chatbot-design-today-is-like-web-design-in-1996-b5d3b09794b0

The latest Google Home commercial is just hilarious 😄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpnxTXILS4s

Want to Easily Create a FAQ Bot? Try this service from Microsoft!

Microsoft has launched a service for businesses to quickly and easily create a FAQ bot customers can chat with inside Bing search results.

What's cool here??

The simple creation of a bot based on Bing Places information provides businesses with a less technical way to enhance their online presence.


The new bots-for-businesses service is currently only available to restaurants: Bing business bot is already partnering with top restaurants.

However, Microsoft expressed an interest in bringing bots to other sectors at Build.

I hope it will be soon!

⌚ 2 min read (kinda short)

https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/22/microsoft-is-helping-restaurants-cook-up-their-own-bots/

🙌 Botanalytics partners with Motion AI!

Motion AI is one of the easiest solutions to build, train and deploy chatbots.

With the Botanalytics integration, Motion AI users can further observe the experience with information extracted from analytics metrics.

If you're a bot developer who uses Motion AI platform, it's a must for you!

⌚️ 3 min read (announcement)

https://botanalytics.co/blog/2017/05/23/motion-ai-botanalytics-partner/

Not on Motion AI? Here's a list of all platforms, choose one and enjoy!

Kik announced plans to launch a new cryptocurrency built on top of the Etherium blockchain called Kin

Once it’s up and running, each Kik user will get a Kin wallet and opportunities to earn Kin for being part of the community. The currency can be exchanged for products, goods, and services within the chat app and any others that adopt the currency.

To oversee the cryptocurrency — both its administrative core tasks and its growth — Kik also announced the creation of the Kin Foundation. Its presence will provide assurance that people can participate in a Kin economy that is not   and can never be   monopolized by a giant company.

This path leads to a future that is compelling for consumers, and open and fair for developers.

⌚️ 4 min read (good one)

https://medium.com/kinfoundation/announcing-kin-a-cryptocurrency-for-an-open-future-98f1da2f498a

Learn more about Kin - https://kin.kik.com/

🚴 Do you like cycling?

If your answer is yes, you'll like the #botoftheweek too!

Bikemap Bot searches 10 routes for cycling next to your location out of our more than 3.2M routes in 80+ countries which were uploaded by users. It helps you to find a perfect cycle route for your next ride.

The bot is still in beta but it works pretty stable, UX is super simple and content is regularly updated. Worth trying.

Bikemap Bot is available on Messenger now.

Try the bot - https://m.me/bikemap

😮 Want to know how to get a million users to your bot?

Instant Translator is a great example for you!

A very simple bot that was made only to demo bots to corporates has evolved into the biggest translation bot on Facebook. Now it has almost 1 million signed on users on Facebook and 600k monthly active users.

Not bad, really?

Here's a story behind it, including their growth, features, launch and many more.

⌚️ 4 min read (good read)

https://chatbotsmagazine.com/how-instant-translator-bot-got-1-million-users-27089533df32

P.S Feel free to try it on Facebook or Viber and give feedback in our public chat

💬 Twitter is reshaping the customer experience through chatbots!

Twitter has recently launched a customizable Direct Message Card that businesses can use to promote and share bots and other customer experiences built in Direct Messages. This new card will help businesses drive discovery of such experiences both through Promoted Tweets and organic sharing.

Using a Direct Message Card, businesses can capture people's attention with engaging image or video creatives, and include up to four fully customizable call-to-action buttons. The latest development for Twitter has been introduced after the platform faces rigor competition from alternative advertising apps like Microsoft, Facebook and Google.

Seems like Twitter is going huge on chatbots in order to grow their ad revenue. But it’s a good sign for all us to start building something cool on the updated platform 😉

⌚️ 4 min read (again)

https://chatbotsmagazine.com/twitter-adds-chat-bots-to-direct-messages-219e510c0cb6

🤔 Why does your bot need a personality?

Because we design for humans.

Building a rich and detailed personality makes your bot more relatable, believable, and relevant to your users.

Here’s a great article on how can you personalise bot conversations to be more life-like, intimate, and representative of human interaction. Must read.

⌚️ 11 min read (quite big, but really useful)

https://blog.prototypr.io/a-guide-to-developing-bot-personalities-c6eba213d77b

Starting today, Instagram supports a brand new type of ads — conversational ads, otherwise, Messenger bots promotion.

Now when user clicks on an Instagram messenger-specific ad, it automatically opens Messenger bot, where he gets a personalized message with content that ad manager previously included in Ads Manager interface.

Do you smell the opportunity? 😉

With this new exciting feature you can create a real conversation with end users and automate some business tasks! It’s smart, it’s focused on a specific action, and it doesn’t require humans on the other side.

The feature will be rolling out in the next few months, can’t wait to test! 😍

https://medium.com/@flreln/how-to-get-clients-from-messenger-using-new-instagram-ads-22c25d81a057