Skype Bots preview comes to consumers and developers

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Skype brings together hundreds of millions of people around the world every day. The amazing connection that Skype brings to so many people inspired us to think about the next platform shift, to conversation as a platform.
Today we are introducing Skype Bots—a new way to bring expertise, products, services and entertainment into your daily messaging on Skype.

Skype Bots will come to life through messaging today, and in the future will be available for audio and video calling as well.

Each Bot will enhance your Skype experience in its own way, bringing a new dimension into your everyday Skype chats by helping turn your ideas and plans into actions.

Today, we are releasing a variety of previews:

• A new Skype client, available on Windows, Android, iPhone and iPad brings the Skype Bot experience to all of our customers.
• A preview of Skype Bots for you to experience and to provide us with feedback (currently available in Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Singapore, and US).
• A new Skype developer program at skype.com/developer to get started building Bots right away, and we also hope you will join us at a May hackathon to create innovative bots on the Skype Bot platform.

We encourage you to try these previews out and we would love to hear your feedback in the Skype Community forum.

At today’s Build 2016 conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella showcased how these technologies work together to bring you entirely new experiences. The Cortana and Skype demonstration showed how Cortana, your personal digital assistant, can help you get things done directly in your Skype chats. For example, Cortana proactively helps you find information, manages your calendar and connects to other Bots that are relevant to you, all without leaving Skype.

We also introduced a new interaction on Skype—Skype Video Bots, taking a different approach to bringing useful and fun interactions into your video calling experiences.



New for developers: The Skype Bot Platform
We are excited to see what our developers can create with Skype Bots as well, and that’s why we’re happy to announce the release of the Skype Bots Platform which includes: The SDK, API and Workflows all in the new Skype Bots Portal at skype.com/developer.

This is only the beginning of taking this exciting technology and together, we can shape what it looks like to shop, play a game, order food, schedule meetings, book trips, control your smart home and more.

We invite you to join the Skype developer program at skype.com/developer to start building Bots right away, and we also hope you will join us at a May hackathon to create innovative bots on the Skype Bot platform. The possibilities are in your hands—and nearly endless. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Please sign-up to join us at the hackathon: skype.com/developer.

Preview Bots are available in the latest versions of Skype for Windows Desktop, Android, iPhone and iPad.


Windows Desktop: select the bot directory on the Skype toolbar


Android: select the floating action button on contacts page


iOS: select search from the contacts page

Source: Skype Bots preview comes to consumers and developers - Skype Blogs