Skip to main content

Twitter’s new bot offers Black History Month facts, GIFs, and events guide

vdovichenko/123RF
Twitter is launching its very own bot to mark the start of Black History Month. The @blackbirds bot, built by the platform’s employee resource group, provides everything from historical facts to info about local events in several U.S. cities.

Users can interact with the bot by starting a conversation with @blackbirds via direct message. The bot will immediately ask you to enter “home” in the message field. Next, a number of options will appear at the bottom of the display, each with a short description, relating to different topics. Tapping an option will result in the bot replying with a written message, GIF, tweet, or external link.

If you select “Today in #BlackHistory,” the bot will respond with a historical fact relating to a lesser-known black American event. Seeing as character restrictions don’t apply to DMs, these enlightening facts can go into detail.

The “#ForTheCause” option provides a link to a cultural event in cities including San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Tap your chosen city and up will pop an Eventbrite link to a community event in the area.

There’s also #SelfCare, which offers wellness tips in the form of positive tweets from black American Twitter users; and #ForThe Culture, a GIF party, powered by GIPHY, celebrating black American cultural icons. Each option includes its very own emoji-activated hashtag, with Twitter also relaunching its #BlackHistoryMonth and #BHM emoji for users to add to tweets.

The @blackbirds bot was built using Twitter’s automated experiences tool, launched in November. The feature limits interactions to several requests — as a result the @blackbirds bot will not respond to any random messages you share with it. Instead, it will urge you to return “home” and choose from the list of actions. Until now, the tool has being marketed as a customer support communications channel for brands and businesses. The @blackbirds bot evidently proves that automated experiences can be used in insightful ways to extend the conversation on Twitter. It will be interesting to see if a wider variety of bots appear on the platform in the future.

As part of its Black History Month celebrations, Twitter will also be arranging employee-led events around the country.

Editors' Recommendations

Saqib Shah
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
Twitter to impose dark mode as it’s ‘better in every way,’ Elon Musk says
A white X on a black background, which could be Twitter's new logo.

If you tend to use Twitter in light mode, then prepare for things to change.

The microblogging platform, which is in the process of rebranding to “X” under the orders of new owner Elon Musk, looks set to ditch light mode, leaving you with only one: dark.

Read more
WhatsApp now lets you add short video messages to chats
WhatsApp logo on a phone.

You can now send short video messages in a WhatsApp chat, Meta announced on Thursday.

A video message can last for up to 60 seconds long and is protected with end-to-end encryption.

Read more
Musk shows off new X sign on top of San Francisco HQ, but the city’s not happy
The new X sign replacing the Twitter logo on the company's headquarters in San Francisco.

Soon after Elon Musk tweeted a drone video showing a new white light in the shape of an X atop the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Friday, the Associated Press (AP) reported that the city had decided to launch in investigation over concerns that the sign's installation may have broken rules.

The X logo is replacing the iconic Twitter bird as Musk continues efforts to rebrand the social media platform that he acquired in October.

Read more