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Chat bots have evolved, and have been compressed and shoehorned into a number of different formats these days. AI-based bots featuring deep learning and other impressive technology often find their way into apps, even with bots projected to supersede apps in the near future by some. In Yahoo’s case, their five available chat bots have found their way into the new Yahoo Bots app. Meant to keep all of your conversations with Yahoo’s five-strong bot army neat and organized, as well as give easy access to the bots themselves on mobile devices, the app features a clean, polished, and simple interface that allows users to check out a bot’s functionality, then initiate a chat with it right from the app.
The first bot in the list is Blitz, a Fantasy Football bot. Blitz is there to help users manage their teams, grab the best draft picks, and know when to bench players. While it’s no replacement for good old intuition and intensive player knowledge, the bot holds an extensive database of football and player facts. A Monkey Pets bot is around for fun, and mimics a digital pet, but with a few extra functions thrown in for good measure. Users can feed their monkey with food emojis and get pictures from exotic places in return, for example. News, Weather, and Finance bots are also on board, and they all do exactly what they say that they do.
Users can check out ongoing chats in a lot format within the app, and resume their chats with a given bot from there. Going into a chat with a bot through the normal channel, by tapping its face in the main menu, will also bring a user to any existing chats with a bot. Users can turn off notifications from bots, if they so choose. The app’s settings screen also includes options to send feedback to Yahoo about their bot experiences, or check out the terms of service, privacy policy, and credits for the app in a separate screen, reachable by clicking the icon in the top left of the app’s main screen. While the bots aren’t quite as advanced as the likes of Google Assistant, they can be useful and fun for those willing to head to the Play Store and give the app a chance.
