After announcing Skype Bots last month, Microsoft is expanding the feature to more platforms, confirming a roll out for both Mac and Web.
During Build 2016 at the end of March, Microsoft introduced Skype Bot SDK, which brings bots to the company’s audio and video chat service.
The Skype Bot SDK means that developers can create their own bots for the software that will be able to interact with users in both videos and chats.
Two weeks after its initial release, Microsoft has now said that Skype Bots are available on two more platforms, Apple’s Mac and the Web.
Microsoft says there are now Preview Skype Bots available for users of the latest versions of Skype on Windows Desktop, Android, iOS, Mac, and Web. At the moment Bots are limited to Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Mac users can activate Skype Bots by heading to “Contact” in the menu and select “Add Bot” to see a list of currently available bots. For Web users, bots can be viewed by selecting “Discover Bots” on the left toolbar.
“We’ve also been introducing previews of new Skype Bots over the past couple of weeks. These include:
Murphy, a Bot to find and create images for when questions can’t be answered by words alone
Summarize, a Bot designed to give an overview of a web page if you don’t have time to read the whole thing”
Bots help users complete tasks and will work through both Cortana and Bing, automatically doing things for users, helping with entertainment, productivity, and services.
“Users can enable bots in Windows by doing the following:
-Update the app to build 7.22.85.107, the latest version of Skype Desktop
-Click the “New” button located in the bot directory, which is located in the Skype toolbar
-Select the Add Bots button to enter the bot directory”
