Yahoo adds Finance, News, Weather and Monkey bot to Facebook Messenger

Yahoo Finance lets users to search for the latest news and information on the stock market. Yahoo has also added ‘games’ to the Finance boot. The News Bot will give trending stories and users can also open news articles that interest them or search for specific news reports. Yahoo Weather bot gives weather updates.

The Monkey Pet is a bot where you can “Send as many emojis as your heart desires,” says Yahoo and this ‘virtual pet’ will shares selfies from its ‘travels.’ So in case you wished to bond with a monkey, then Yahoo’s @MonkeyPet is your best bet.

Facebook announced this year that it was opening up bots for businesses across the world. Bots can reach anyone who is on the Facebook Messenger app and will offer niche, personalised service depending on the company that created the bot.

Facebook’s idea with bots is to let users do everything from the Messenger app: From getting an appointment with a doctor to hailing a cab. Bots will also send out regular updates from the company’s side to customers.

The only problem with bots is that they are automated and might not always the smartest replies. There’s also the fear that bots will start spamming users with messages.

Of course, Facebook is not the only one looking at bots. Google and Microsoft have both acknowledged: bots are the future.