Ozlo chatbot now helps you hunt Pokémon

One of the great challenges for any chatbot is to figure out how to be useful. As one developer pointed out to me recently, many users try a chatbot for a few minutes, then get tired of how they work and go back to using an app.

Recently, I tested out the Ozlo chatbot to help me find places to eat. I’m still using it, but I plan to use it even more. The company — which is in a beta period and requires that people add themselves to a waiting list to test the app — added the ability to chat about Pokémon Go. You can search for PokéGyms and PokéStops in your area, which saves you the time of going into the game itself.

The chatbot also provides directions to the next stop and an estimate on how long it will take to get there.

What I like about this addition is that it shows the Ozlo team is committed to the idea of adding new features and making the bot more useful. I could see them adding travel searches, a Quora-like request system, and other features down the road.

Here’s the full post to check out what they’ve done and what the features look like.