Despite the push-and-pull treatment Verizon is giving Yahoo regarding the $4.83 billion acquisition, in light of the troublesome press the company is getting because of a massive hack reported late September, the company's mobile efforts seem unaffected with the release of Yahoo Bots.
Available now for both Android and iOS, Yahoo Bots is essentially a chat app that connects you to Yahoo's flurry of artificial intelligence-enabled "bots" that spill out information you need, done through a very conversational, personal messaging style not unlike Facebook's "Chatbots" first unveiled in April, or Skype's chat bots.
The app is very similar to other platforms that feature the same functionality, also emulating cards, buttons and carousels with suggested points of discussion to squeeze further information about a particular subject and move the thread forward.
For iOS users, a Yahoo Bots will also feature Siri integration, as reported by VentureBeat. This allows users to send messages to one of Yahoo's Bots right from Apple's voice-enabled virtual assistant.
There are different Bots for different areas of discussion such as news, weather, finance and in an attempt to appeal to the more gimmick-inclined demographic, a Monkey Pets Yahoo Bot that eats food emojis. Apart from these, Blitz was also released as a Yahoo Bot, dealing with fantasy football. Yahoo released all of these Bots, save for Blitz, on Kik and Facebook Messenger earlier this summer.
It's a particularly exciting prospect for Yahoo to amplify its mobile presence, since it has been visibly struggling trying to corner a market that was once largely in its turf. Who knows? Maybe a Flickr or Tumblr integration is in the books, where users can search and narrow down specific photos or blogs relevant to them. It's a welcome possibility for Yahoo, which is "exploring all avenues" as of this time.
The Yahoo Bots app is separate from Yahoo's main messenger app so users who aren't too keen on downloading Yahoo Messenger to chat with Yahoo's bots are free to just download the Yahoo Bots app.
"We'll continue exploring other opportunities, including launching on Yahoo Messenger, as we learn and iterate," a Yahoo spokesperson told VentureBeat.
Yahoo Bots is available now for Android and iOS.
It's been a particularly unfortunate series of events for Yahoo this year, given the recent massive data breach and a disastrous scandal purporting it to have scanned users' personal emails for U.S. intelligence early October. The abysmal press hasn't sat well with Verizon, which is currently mulling over the acquisition deal.
