Bots are virtual interlocutors that are present in many instant messengers today. Skype is no exception. AT latest versions programs also appeared these useful and unique applications, each of which has its own "character". Bots are useful for more than just communication. They can be used to search necessary information, play mini-games, make new friends, etc. To talk to a bot on Skype, just click on the selected character and start texting him.
What are Skype bots
Skype bots are nothing new. Similar programs appeared in earlier messengers and computer games to keep company in virtual battles. These applications imitate the behavior of a living person in a virtual space. The first bots bore little resemblance human communication, however, over time, they began to bring obvious benefits, and today each person can create a personal bot to order. Most often, such programs answer calls, are virtual directories, invite people to groups and communities.
Why you need bots in Skype
Skype bots, like other similar programs, are designed to help and entertain users. You can get to know them, strike up a conversation, play an online game, ask for the weather forecast, or latest news. Popular Skype bots are only available in some countries so far - USA, Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland, India, New Zealand and Singapore. Most bot programs are in English, although Russian equivalents may appear in the near future. It should be noted that bots can only work in the latest versions of Skype for Windows, Android and MacOS.
How can I add bots to Skype? It is not difficult to do this - just find the "Bots" tab in the "Contacts" section and select the character you like. In the browser version, you need to open the "Overview of bots" tab. After that, just select the item "Start" or "Add a bot", and you can begin to communicate. If you don't like the bot or get bored, you can delete or block it at any time.
Popular Skype bots
Here is a list of the most popular Skype bots:
- ORPO Rammas is an interesting and intelligent interlocutor, able to communicate in English and Arabic.
- vertical.consulta is an English-language bot for medical and other consultations.
- Davó is an English-language reference bot.
- In OKPAY, BOT is a bot for Skype payment system issues.
- Allai is the UK's official Skype bot.
- Yedimych Internet hypermarket - English-language bot of the Yedimych hypermarket.
As you can see, Skype bots are extremely convenient and useful helpers. Soon it will be possible to add bots and communicate with them in many other countries, including Russia.
Following some other messengers and social services, Skype also decided to “legalize” bots. And at the end of March 2016, the developers announced this function in your application. What is it intended for Skype bot, why, in fact, can it be useful to the most ordinary user and how can you add some kind of bot to yourself?
Bots in the virtual space
In fact, bots are not an invention of the modern virtual space. The bot is computer program, which is designed in all sorts of ways to "pretend" ordinary person online. And the first bots, oddly enough, appeared ... in computer games. It was with the development of network shooters - such as DOOM, Quake and the like - that users began to write so-called bots - software robots that could make up a company in network battles. After all, not all players then generally had access to computer network but still want to play...
Today, bots are both pleasant and unpleasant additions to almost any social network or messenger.
At first, they only annoyed with their stupidity. Over time, however, programmers realized that bots could also be put into useful service to humanity. And now a large number of bots are written to order and on paid basis. For example, to answer customer questions, issue a certificate on keywords in messenger...
Appointment of bots in Skype
The Skype software robot can somehow imitate the behavior of a living person on the Web. Since the announcement, a variety of Skype bots have appeared. Some simply entertain the user by playing with him with various games, others may search useful information on the Web, others can also communicate ...
In a word, the choice is really great. However, most of bots are still functioning on English language, part is only available in the United States. However, the restrictions are getting smaller and smaller.
To make sure the bot is safe, you need to look at its profile before adding it. It should contain the phrase "Skype Certified". In addition, the bot avatar is always hexagonal, while all other users have it round. In addition, next to the avatar of the approved bot, there is a “tick” on a gray background.
How can you add one or another bot to yourself? Everything is pretty simple. For this:
- You need to download Skype on your device;
- The next steps depend on which operating system Skype is working. For example, on Android there is a special item in the menu "Contacts". That's what it's called - "Bots". On iOS, the Bots icon is in the tab "Recent". The desktop version of Skype Windows has a special icon on the side toolbar. In the browser version of Skype, you need to select "Bot Overview";
- Next, just click on "Add bot" or "To begin".
The list of certified and approved bots can be found on the project page: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34655/dostupnye-boty-skype.
If the bot is tired or suspicious, then it can be blocked or deleted. This is done in the same way as in the case of the most common contacts on Skype.
It remains to add that bots are available only in the latest release versions of Skype. So it makes sense to update the program from official sources.
Knowing Skype bots - what it is, you can significantly expand your ability to use this multilateral program for communication and calls.
About my bot for Telegram, which can show data from Google Analytics. And then Microsoft announced the launch of bots in Skype - it's time to learn how it works. Under the cut - a small description possible problems. Who can't wait to see the result, here it is - MetricsBot.
Bot Framework vs. Skype Bot API
To begin with, it is worth understanding that there is a Bot Framework, which allows you to create bots for many messengers, incl. and for Skype, but there is Skype Bot API, which allows you to create bots specifically for Skype. Each has its own documentation, its own bot catalog (?) and its own bot registration. It seems obvious that these are different things, but I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out the Bot Framework "a documentation and registering a bot in it, when I expected that I was creating a bot without a framework. Further, we will talk specifically about the Skype Bot API, Bot Framework we don’t need it, we don’t need to register anything there either.There is a Skype SDK for Node.js and for. I didn’t use them either, because I wrote the bot in Python.
useful links
To start a small set useful links(all links are in English):
- Your applications (here you need to create a new application and get the app id and client secret)
- Managing your bots (here you need to create a new bot, specifying the app id received earlier)
In principle, from the documentation it is clear how the bot works and how it interacts with Skype, so I will not describe this part - I will talk about the difficulties.
Authorization
This turned out to be the hardest part for me. The documentation says that for authorization, you need to obtain a token, and then use it in the HTTP header on each request:
Authorization: Bearer oauth2-token
However, for some reason, the documentation forgot to indicate which scope should be used to get the token. The correct answer (can be found in the Node.js SDK code) is https://graph.microsoft.com/.default .
But here the most interesting thing begins - if you create a URL for confirmation by the user (= the owner of the bot), then receive auth_code, and then try to exchange this code for access token, then the problem will arise at the very first step - when opening the created URL, Microsoft swears at the wrong scope. By the way, the correct scope is not in the list options in the Microsoft documentation. I tried to specify another scope - openid offline_access https://graph.microsoft.com/user.read , in this case I was able to get a token, but I could not interact with Skype with it.
The solution turned out to be unexpected - to get an access_token, it was necessary to send a regular POST request:
curl -X POST -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -d "client_id=
Returns in response access_token and expires_in(without any refresh_token). I have never seen such OAuth.
Sending messages
Sending messages is quite simple -
POST /v2/conversations/8:alice/activities HTTP/1.1
Host: apis.skype.com
Authorization: Bearer oauth2-token
{
"message": ("content" : "Hi! (wave)")
}
Requests are sent to apis.skype.com. The documentation forgot to indicate that requests should go via http s.
You can use html tags in the text. Which ones exactly - is still unknown (there is no list in the documentation).
There are interesting and undescribed restrictions on the sent text. For example, characters cannot be used in text &
, <
and >
. Not being able to send a character &
creates a problem when passing references. Another problem with link submissions is the automatically generated thumbnails for each link. In my MetricsBot, there are three links in the invitation text, Skype creates three previews. You can't turn it off yet.
Publishing a bot
After creating the bot, you can try to publish it (before that, the number of bot users is limited - only 100 people can use it). How long the publishing process takes is not clear, this is not in the documentation. My bot has not yet been published. On the official forum, my question on this topic is bypassed (although my other questions are answered by Microsoft employees).
Please note that in order to publish the bot, you must disable the use of the bot in group chats.
Otherwise, creating a bot for Skype is quite simple.
Under various nicknames, a user can be added to you on skype. As a rule, one of his first messages is something like this:
hey i found your name on the directory. I"m 24/female wanna chat and share pics?
Then she says that her name is Amanda and she is from Miami. Correspondence is only in English, even if you answer it in Russian. This is skype bot. You won't get clear answers from her. The links that she gives - in principle, you can open, they do not carry any potential threats. But it’s still not worth entering the bank card number on the sites (unless you really want to watch paid video chats).
I am enclosing the entire message:
Whoopie.kind25: hi
Evgeny Yu.: Hi! Who is it? What they wanted?
Whoopie.kind25: hey i found your name on the directory. I"m 24/female wanna chat and share pics?
Evgeny Yu.: ok, you can
Evgeny Yu.: from Belarus, and you?
Evgeny Yu.: ok
Whoopie.kind25: cool, im just bored as fuk at home! I "m single and looking... have you ever had cyber sex?
Evgeny Yu.: no
Whoopie.kind25: lol, send me a recent pic of you and lets have some fun
Evgeny Yu.: you should be first
Whoopie.kind25: sweet like want to see pics of me?
Evgeny Yu.: yes
Evgeny Yu.: good
Whoopie.kind25: talk to me like a slut baby... do you like girls with big tits? want to see some naughty big tit pics?
Evgeny Yu.: yes
Eugene Yu.: give me more than one plz
Whoopie.kind25: i"m getting wet baby wanna watch me rub my pussy on my cam!?
Evgeny Yu.: no, give me plz more photos
Evgeny Yu.: give me plz more photos
Whoopie.kind25: Don"t worry baby the site i"m on is FREE to join this site all you have to do is register they support mobile phones too :)
Evgeny Yu.: How old are you?
Whoopie.kind25: fill out your cc info baby for Age verification ONLY, your card will not be charged. ok i"m ready for u now
Eugene Y.: > whoopie.kind25: ok i"ll show you just 1 naughty pic... http://i.imgur.com/zRAM2Uu.jpg
Give me plz more naughty pics
Evgeny Yu.: what about more photos?
Evgeny Yu.: i wait for your photos
Whoopie.kind25:k
Another correspondence:
Applesauce.bunny562: hey
Evgeny Yu.: hello, who are you?
Applesauce.bunny562: hey i found your name on the directory. I"m 24/female wanna chat and share pics?
Evgeny Yu.: ok
Evgeny Yu.: yes
Evgeny Yu.: i`m from Belarus
Applesauce.bunny562: cool, im just bored as fuk at home! I "m single and looking... have you ever had cyber sex?
Evgeny Yu.: never have
Eugene Y.: lol, send me a recent pic of you and lets have some fun
Applesauce.bunny562: lol, send me a recent pic of you and lets have some fun
Evgeny Yu.: sweet like want to see pics of me?
Applesauce.bunny562: sweet like want to see pics of me?
Eugene Yu.: angie varona
Talk to me like a slut baby... do you like girls with big tits? want to see some naughty big tit pics?
Applesauce.bunny562: talk to me like a slut baby... do you like girls with big tits? want to see some naughty big tit pics?
Applesauce.bunny562: ok i"ll show you just 1 naughty pic... http://i.imgur.com/SDvojZZ.jpg
Evgeny Yu.: good
Applesauce.bunny562: i"m getting wet baby wanna watch me rub my pussy on my cam!?
Evgeny Yu.: yes
Evgeny Yu.: ok
Applesauce.bunny562: Don"t worry baby the site i"m on is FREE to join this site all you have to do is register they support mobile phones too :)
You can already find a lot of such correspondence on the Internet.
Amanda's skype bot knocked on my door under the nickname whoopie.kind25, but it can also be under other nicknames:
- mega_punfs
- akon4loveguy
- sparky.lovr69
- passion.dall62
- lavonia.berk
- elegantoffer842
- applesauce.bunny562
- and etc.
As you can see, the bot lures you to some sites. For the lure, she says that she has curvaceous and big boobs**. Then he offers to look at her body through a webcam, but it's already on the site :)
The first link given by the bot leads to a completely harmless imgur site - http://imgur.com/a/PC6Hy. These are actually pictures of Angie Varona, the girl who became a celebrity thanks to this bot. Photos of Angie Varona:
Please forgive me, but I'm talking about bots again. I understand that the information field is packed to capacity, but here is really useful info 100%! We tested all the chat yesterday, it was an extravaganza
All in all, I'm telling you. There are bots with which you need to open a separate dialog box and ask him a question or select a command that he should execute. These bots are called chatbots. And there are bots that do not need to be added to the contact list, and you do not need to talk to them, just mention it in the message and it will perform its function. So, we tested three such bots - for image search, for gif search and for video search. More about each of them:
@bing is a bot that searches for images on request. If you enter @bing in the message input field, you will see the inscription "search images" next to it, that is, "search for images." All you have to do is write the search word or phrase right there in the input field. Then, depending on the speed of the Internet, wait until the bot loads the pictures on request and select the one that will be sent as a message to the chat or dialogue. Try it!
@gif works in exactly the same way as bing, only it looks for gifs
@imdb searches for films, sends upon request a description of the film with a picture, a link to the trailer and a link to view the "legal" version (that is, not a root tracker at all). Very useful when someone asks “what to see?” and you give him not just a name, but also a description and a trailer with a poster in one message)
Testing these helper bots made me think what other bots are we missing? The guys made bold assumptions that it would be great to have a bot that sends push notifications for keywords. I set the bot to mention my name or company in the chat, and muted all chats, receiving notifications only when they are discussing what is important to you.
I’ll add on my own that I really want the same bot as @bing, only to issue a link from Yandex upon request. And then you have to go to the browser, copy the link and paste it into the message. We often make mistakes when we write the names of sites by hand, otherwise there would be a Google bot or a Yandex bot and it would find the necessary sites for us in the same way as it finds pictures and gifs. I know that there is, but now I’m talking about helper bots.
There were also requests for bots that hide certain messages and a wiki bot that would work just like image search, only for Wikipedia articles.
If you are quite capable of developing helper bots, then write to me how you will make one of those that we are waiting for, and I will write a review on it, and you will have glory, honor and eternal goodies
