Talk of bots is everywhere since Facebook and Microsoft both recently announced they’d be putting more emphasis on seeing what parts of the businesses will be best served by the automated ‘assistants.’
They might still only be in their infantile stages (read: they mostly suck right now) but Record Bird has just launched its first bot to keep you up to date on the latest music releases.
To use it, you’ll need to be a Kik user – but you don’t necessarily need to have even heard of Record Bird before, let alone have an account.
Just send a message to ‘Recordbird’ on Kik and the bot will give you a list of three autofilled options to get you started, or alternatively you can search for a particular artist.
You can then choose to get more information about those artists, or choose a different one.
If you choose more info, you’re then sent a link to click through to listen to tracks from the selected item.
It’s perhaps not the ultimate use of a bot, but if you want a way to keep abreast of the biggest music releases and are already on Kik anyway, shooting off a message to RecordBird’s bot will probably save you some time.
Just think, you might get stuck in an awkward social silence one day soon that Record Bird can get you out of.
The company says it’s still going to build a proper mobile app, as that’s where deeper engagement takes place but that bots are good for a “painless” first contact with a company or service.
Similar functionality is available through its website for non-Kik users and a Facebook Messenger version is on the way already.
For the next build, Record Bird says it’s working towards making the ‘conversations’ a whole lot more natural and like talking to a human.
The company is adding the bot to Kik’s bot store today, but you can get started before that by searching for ‘recordbird.’
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