4 chatbots you should try this week: Streak Trivia, Dotcom, FlightBot, and Allset

This week, I found some great chatbots for trivia, flying planes, finding domain names, and ordering food. Some of them work really well, some of them have some bugs that need to be worked out, but all of them are excellent ideas that push the limits of what chatbots can do.

I hope you find these bots fun, inspiring, and maybe even useful.

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1. Streak Trivia Bot

The Streak Trivia Bot is a “massively multiplayer trivia game built for Facebook Messenger.” Created by James Wilsterman, Streak Trivia has provided by far the most fun experience I have ever had with a bot. You have to try it. Seriously.

Every day at 1 p.m. Pacific, the Streak Trivia bot sends a message to all its users, letting them know that a new trivia session is about to start. If you join the game, which you need to do quickly before it starts, you will suddenly be competing with players around the globe in a game of trivia. Questions will be sent out to every player at the same time and you have 30 seconds to submit your answer. Get a question wrong? You’re out! Whoever gets the most questions right in a row wins the game.

It’s simple, it’s awesome, it’s engaging, and it’s the first time I have experienced myself excitedly waiting for the next time a bot messages me. Streak Trivia is onto something, and I expect we will see more bots like this in the future.

2. DotCom Bot

Ever randomly had an idea for a new domain name and needed a quick way to figure out if it was available? Of course you have! This is exactly what the DotCom Bot is designed to help you with.

Send the DotCom Bot a keyword, and it will tell you in seconds which related domains are taken or are available for purchase. You can even type in “@” and then a keyword, and the bot will tell you if that username is available on popular social networks like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and more.

3. Allset Bot

This incredible bot lets you choose a restaurant, order your food, and then pay. When you go to lunch later that day you can walk straight into the restaurant, sit down, eat, and leave. It’s almost like Uber in the way it lets you handle payment in advance.

Allset is currently limited to San Francisco, Palo Alto, and New York City, but if everything goes according to plan, the company will be aggressively expanding its locations. Sadly, when I tried to use the bot it didn’t work because so many other people were trying to use the bot at the same time. It’s not the worst problem to have.

4. FlightBot

Most people won’t have a use for this bot, but it is awesome. FlightBot is the perfect companion bot for anyone who is actively flying a plane. Yes, this bot is specifically meant for pilots.

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FlightBot allows you to easily access weather forecasts and radar information, and you can even get tower frequencies for specific airports. How cool is that?

Sadly, I don’t yet have my pilot’s license, but as soon as I do, I’m using this bot.

I expect there will be a lot more bots that are focused on very specific types of people and professions. If you are working on a bot like this, let me know.

Have you found a bot that you think I should write about?

Send it to me right now — I would love to check out any bot you think is incredible! Who knows, maybe I’ll be trying your bot next.

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