Yahoo Unveils MonkeyPet For Facebook Messenger

Yahoo has launched four bots for Facebook Messenger on both iOS and Android platform and interestingly one of them is a pet monkey. These “algorithmically-driven” bots are designed to provide information to user in the form of chats on Messenger.

Yahoo is providing Finance, News and Weather information via its @Yahoo Finance, @YahooNews and @YahooWeather bots on Messenger. The monkey bot or @MonkeyPet is just for fun. “Send as many emojis as your heart desires to MonkeyPet (@MonkeyPet), an emoji loving virtual pet that shares selfies from its “travels”, writes Andrew Poon, VP product management, Yahoo in a post.

So, if someone wants stock market information on their Messenger chat, a simple query like “Today’s market?” on the chat will yield results. The same happes with news. By just asking “What’s trending?” to the @YahooNews bot will list results. “Users can even search for specific news articles to send to your friends directly in Messenger,” says Poon.

Chatbots are automated programs that help users communicate with businesses and carry out tasks such as online purchases. While chatbots have existed in some form for years, they have recently become a hot topic in the tech business as advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning make them far more capable and potentially able to assume a key role in the way customers communicate with businesses.

In May, medical consultation platform Lybrate was the first introduce its Facebook Messenger bot in India. The Lybrate bot appears like just another contact on the Messenger chat list. It allows people to communicate and seek opinion on health queries from doctors and stay updated on health-related issues. The response time depends on the query. Users can add the bot for free