New Yahoo bots give you the news, a pet monkey in Facebook Messenger

By Christian de Looper Published July 7, 2016

Ever wanted to own a pet monkey? Well, now you can — kind of –thanks to the Yahoo Monkey Pets bot, which is now available on Facebook Messenger. Okay, it’s not a real pet monkey, but it’s as close as you’re going to get without violating any animal cruelty laws. Yahoo also brought a slew of perhaps more useful bots to Messenger, including News, Weather, and Finances.

The News, Weather, and Finances bots are pretty self-explanatory, but for those unaware of Monkey Pets, the service is basically a bot version of the Tamagotchi — send it emojis and it will share a selfie of its “travels.”

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So why use Yahoo instead of services from the likes of CNN and The Weather Channel? Well, Yahoo says that its weather bot stands apart from the rest because it allows you to caption and send images from Flickr, which it promises will help “bring the forecast to life.”

yahoo-bots — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The news bot seems to act like most other news bots out there. Yahoo is quick to point out that you can also send news articles directly to your friends, adding somewhat of a social aspect to the bot. To help make it easier to find articles to share, the bot has a search function.

The Finance bot is only available on Messenger. As you would expect, the bot allows you to stay on top of the stock market, search for stocks, follow trends, and so on. Like the others, it has a social aspect to it, allowing you to share information that you find with friends.

It’s certainly an interesting move for Yahoo to bring the bots to Messenger, especially given the fact that its mobile apps really have never been the success that the company might have hoped. No doubt, Yahoo is hoping the bots will help turn its fortunes around, however ,it’s hard to see that happening. It’s also an interesting move considering the fact that the company has its own messaging platform, Yahoo Messenger, which doesn’t yet support bots. Clearly, the company is simply trying to release products it believes will have the most impact.

You can get the new bots on Messenger for yourself by searching for @YahooFinance, @YahooNews, @YahooWeather, or @MonkeyPet.

Christian de Looper

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…

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