Skype adds two more new bots: Summarize and Murphy

Build 2016 was very exciting, as Microsoft announced a Windows 10 anniversary update and new Xbox developer opportunities. Along with this, and also at the event, Microsoft talked a lot about their plans for using their Bot Framework to empower developers to build bots for customer interaction. Later, and that goal in mind, the company released an update to Skype which introduced four of these bots for basic search uses.

This week, two new bots are heading to Skype to bring additional functionality to the Microsoft program. One of the bots, named Murphy, is designed to allow you to ask “what if” questions.  Based off Microsoft’s Project Murphy, after the initial question the bot provides you a meme result if the right question is asked. In a somewhat similar fashion, the second bot, named Summarize, reads a link to an online story and summarized it in three paragraphs.

Skype had previously sent out invites to join its Skype developer program so developers could start building bots right away. The team will also hold a May hackathon to invite everyone to create innovative bots on the Skype Bot platform.

To access these bots, you’ll need to make sure you’re on the latest Skype clients. For Windows PCs, open Skype and go to Help > Check for updates.  Meanwhile, if you’re on a mobile platform, you can check out Skype by clicking the links below.