One major criticism of chatbots are that their interactions with users are too robotic. But some publishers and brands are addressing that by hiring comedians and scriptwriters to shape the bots’ personalities and make them sound more human. Slack integration Howdy was built with writer and former improv comedian Neal Pollack, while Google just announced […]

Snapchat may have a reputation among news organizations for being a platform for lighter news stories, but Le Monde is using Snapchat Discover to cover hard news stories, such as the stabbing attack in Minnesota. Le Monde is one of eight publishers on Snapchat Discover in France. Le Monde’s online editor Michael Szadkowski explains that […]

When WhatsApp was bought by Facebook in 2014, users worried what the acquisition would mean for privacy on the platform. At the time, WhatsApp said the sale wouldn’t change anything: “We don’t know your birthday. We don’t know your home address. None of that data has ever been collected and stored by WhatsApp, and we […]

Those who are trying to understand WeChat’s role in Chinese life may ask questions like, is WeChat the Facebook of China? But Zara Zhang says that’s the wrong question to ask. WeChat takes on a combination of tools that Americans use, and Zhang writes that its role in Chinese life offers important lessons for technology […]

In April, The Post launched Pay Up, a Slack-based community aimed at women in the tech sector. The group has quickly become home to discussions about the male-female wage gap, salary negotiation tactics, and news about job openings. The group’s creators say the Pay Up model could be extended to other communities, and if they […]

Chatbots offer the best way to deal with overload, writes John Brandon. “They are important because they are paving the way to a more A.I.-assisted future, one where bots fill in the gap between what we don’t know (and maybe what we don’t know that we don’t know) and what we actually know,” he said.

Besides invisible messages, bigger and predictive emoji, full-screen effects, and GIFs, Apple recently announced that stickers, too, are coming to its most popular app, iMessage. But stickers aren’t just frivolous little punctuation marks to be inserted in text messages. They can be replacements for entire sentences, and help create a new medium for communicating and […]

Since Facebook opened up Messenger to bots two months ago, publishers have learned that it’s not hard to make a basic Facebook bot. But making a good, useful Facebook bot requires a bit more work, Lucia Moses writes. Moses talks to four publishers with Facebook Messenger bots about what they’ve learned and what’s worked for […]

An idea born out of an ISOJ panel, Politibot is a bot based on Telegram Messenger that “provides useful information to political junkies” during the Spanish elections, with the goal of living on after elections come to an end on June 26. Eduardo Suarez explains the team chose to go with Telegram to build its bot […]

Snapchat can be a great way to tell a story while it’s happening, but that doesn’t mean news organizations can forgo preparation. This week, The Washington Post is sharing what it’s like to ride on public transportation around the world as part of its coverage of repairs to the Washington, D.C., Metro system. Before starting […]