20 News Bots to every taste
We selected for you 20 news chatbots of various media companies: the giants like CNN and industry-specific magazines about tech or sports, international The Guardian and local news of Kaliningrad and Telangana. Is there something common in the ways these bots interact with subscribers, are there any norms? Are there any specials, additional abilities in some of them? Let’s have a look.
1. CNN: on Facebook Messenger, Kik, and Alexa
Features on Facebook Messenger
- Sends digests: daily, breaking news, editor’s pick, selected by topic (politics, style, tech, etc.);
- Searches news by keywords and topics;
- Displays Top Stories digest on demand;
Interface
The digest is designed as a slider, where each card contains an image, a headline, a subtitle, and buttons.
- Top Stories slider has only one button for each story and it allows you reading the article on CNN website (on mobile devices, it opens a story in a webview, without leaving Messenger for mobile browser).
- In the opt-in digests, there is one more button for each card: Summary. Press it to get a short description of a story.
- In a slider with keyword search results, you will also find two buttons in each card: Read this story and Show similar.
We know nothing of the algorithm of “Similar” news selection for now. Try this option — in fact, the connection between the original article and the others you get as “similar” is not always obvious.
Features on Kik
- Searches news by a keyword or a topic;
- Displays Top stories;
- Saves stories indicated by a reader and displays them on request;
- Shows content selected according to reader’s previous interactions.
Interface
There are no sliders in Kik, and the stories are displayed one by one.
The Kik chatbot can present news in two ways:
1. As a link that opens in a webview — it is the way of presenting the search results.
2. As a series of text messages. The text is divided into logical parts. The bot does not bombard readers with messages but waits for their response, and the next message comes only after a button is pressed (“Tell me more”, “What we know?”, etc.). It is the way of presenting Top Stories section. Unlike the Facebook Messenger bot of CNN, there is only one story here.
A skill for Alexa
This chatbot allows searching news by a keyword and viewing the stories from a collection. To do this, a user can tap the headline, say it aloud or indicate its number.
2. The Guardian on Facebook Messenger
Features
- Sends a daily digest (the user can set up the edition(region), broadcasting time (6.00, 7.00, 8.00 a.m.), topics);
- Searches news by keywords;
- Displays news digests selected by topics, most popular and Headlines;
- The Guardian chatbot additionally offers “specials” and broadcasts hot news on most relevant topics. For example, during a transfer window, it sends updates for football teams and “rumors round-up”.
Interface
The digest is presented as a slider where the articles can be opened in a webview, and each card has only one button labeled “Share”
3. VentureBeat on Facebook Messenger
Features
- Sends news (only topics can be set up);
- Shows personalized digest (based on a reader’s profile);
- Profile management. Bot gathers information about the articles viewed by a reader, saves tags and keywords. VentureBeat, unlike any other news bot, allows its subscribers editing their profile, adding and removing tags, stopping or starting their profile. Meanwhile, CNN Is still harassing me with stories about sport after my single click at one of them.
Interface
This bot has got a convenient multi-level menu:
Check news (Latest News/My News);
View Channels;
My Profile (Start/Stop/View Profile).
View Channels option displays digests by topics (Bots, AI, Cloud, etc.) in a slider. Users can view a chosen digest at once or subscribe to it.
The news digests are also presented in a slider, each card has the following buttons:
Read — opens a story in a webview.
Summary — displays summary in a text message (in fact, it shows simply the beginning of the article, but anyway, it is better than just one option of reading in a webview)
Share.
4. TechCrunch on Facebook Messenger
Features
- Sends everyday digest (users can set up time) and breaking stories (which are sent as soon as they are released);
- Searches by keywords;
- Shows and sends two types of news collections: ”Most popular” and “Latest headlines”
Interface
Main menu is in a slider (which is not typical for news bots) with digests and subscriptions management. The following options are available in this menu:
- view a digest immediately;
- subscribe to this type of digest.
Even after a user had already subscribed to all digests, these Subscribe buttons constantly appear before his or her eyes. Why? No one knows.
A bot is integrated with Facebook Instant Articles.
This chatbot communicates in a rather informal language compared to most of its “colleagues”.
5. TheScore: on Facebook Messenger and Kik
Features on Facebook Messenger
- Sends news about football teams (you can subscribe to one or several teams);
- Displays scores of various football contests;
- Displays new digests (News, Standings, Videos and Highlights).
Interface
In my opinion, it’s risky to put so many interesting options under More button. Some users may just miss all these features because usually More contains just help and info.
The developers have added images (emoji) to The Quick replies. Just look at those pretty buttons with football, tennis, basketball balls! What a beauty!
Features and interface on Kik
Kik chatbot deals only with separate teams. It shows the news and scores of one team of your choice. It displays articles as links to the site.
6. Novi
A chatbot created by a German media company NDR (public radio and television broadcaster) in cooperation with “Tagesschau” magazine
Features
- Sends news (morning and evening digests are managed separately);
- Displays news;
- Searches by keywords;
Interface
The persistent menu on the left:
Her mit den News! (“Give me news!»)
Push-Einstellungen («Notifications» — subscription management)
Mehr («More»)
Under “Mehr” we find additional features, for example, Feedback option (rare in media companies’ bots.
Novi displays news in an original way:
- First, it doesn’t send a usual slider and not even cards with stories.
- Second, it doesn’t strive to redirect you to the website and in most cases articles aren’t displayed as simple links to the website.
The bot sends one article in a text message and a picture, often GIF (which draws more attention than usual pictures). Complex topics which demand big articles are divided between several messages, and only they are accompanied by a link to the website.
Only search results are displayed in a standard slider with a webview .
They also use an unusual form to present subscription management: List Template. No other news bot chooses this design.
Novi often uses emoji and GIFs which makes it more human-like and friendly.
7. Meduza on Telegram
Features
- Sends evening digest (no settings available);
- Shows digests: most popular and Top;
- Sends additional materials;
- Has search by keywords (which is not working at the moment).
Interface
In this bot, we can trace the “evolution” of interface from a diverse and convenient to a simple and boring one.
Initially, Meduza sendt news in form of concise messages which were informative enough to understand what was happening in the world. But there were links for each item so that a user could open the full story in a webview, and even go to other connected materials.
Now broadcasting includes just a message with a link to Meduza website, which should be opened in webview and contains the whole digest at once.
8. The Wall Street Journal on Facebook Messenger and Line
Features on Facebook Messenger
- Sends daily briefing;
- Sends news about a specific company;
- Searches for specialized news like a company’s key financial metrics;
- Displays latest news and important market updates.
Interface
example, to view a certain company’s key financial metrics you have to type “Metrics $AAPL”,
“P/E $AAPL” or “Market Cap $AAPL”.
Help section besides the “standard set” contains also Portfolio — the list of companies areader is tracking, and other specials.
I found using these special features rather complicated. You have to input (yes, to type!) some complex commands. Gosh, I heard people say that chatbots are cool because they have conversational interface. But maybe the subscribers of this financial magazine, vice versa, enjoy formulae.
All digests are presented in sliders. Unusual thing is that the Titles of the cards are, as a rule, all the same: WSJ. And the headlines are placed in the pictures. The articles are opened in a webview .
Features and interface on Line
The Line chatbot just sends series of links with the news.
9. Huffington Post
There are two chatbots of this media company, and both on Facebook Messenger.
HuffPost
One of them started as a somewhat narrowly focused project: when I subscribed to it long ago, HuffPost chatbot claimed that its aim is a coverage of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. This bot is connected to the official Facebook page of the company.
Features
- Though 100 days are over, the bot diligently sends me messages with news briefings (not only about Trump now) every day. Without any links (so unusually)!
- Displays digest (standard slider);
- Gathers feedback (looks like the bot is a bit obsessed with it)
Interface
The persistent menu on the left contains the following items:
The Latest
Today’s Roundup — displays the briefing described above (for those, who is not subscribed to it)
Latest News (the usual digest)
Talk To Us
Give Feedback
Ask Lydia (Lydia Polgreen is the editor-in-chief of HuffPost).
Manage Subscription
Under each story in a slider, there is a button «Thoughts on This?» Users can click it and send their opinions on a certain article or suggest specific angles to cover.
Bernie
The second bot is called Huffington Post Demo, but it also has a real name — Bernie, and it claims to be Artificial Intelligence-based.
Features
- Sends news (a user can choose among several digests: Latest Headlines, Blog, Politics, Sports, etc);
- Displays digests;
- Promises to answer questions (but not necessarily answers).
Interface
To get to the operating (useful) menu, the bot suggests you simply to type “Menu”.
Meanwhile, the persistent menu contains only one item: Create a bot on Chatfuel.
Thanks a lot!
This bot is connected to a separate page. No official comments from Huffington Post about this “bastard” were observed.
10. BBC
You won’t find a working chatbot connected to the page of world’s oldest national broadcasting organization. Though, there is a ”Get Started” button.
On the BBC Labs web pages, they write that it is really important for a company to reach new audience in messaging apps; they say that they have developed bots for Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram. What is in fact?
+ BBC has developed and tested a bot built in an article on the website. It answers the readers’ questions and creates the air of interactivity. This kind of bot is really unique among media companies.
+ There is BBC Mundo chatbot (in Spain).
BBC Mundo on Facebook Messenger
Features
- Sends news (no settings);
- Shows digest.
Interface
Standard sliders, articles are opened in a webview.
+ There is another chatbot connected to the BBC Politics page.
BBC Brexit Bot on Facebook Messenger
- Sends news about Brexit (weekly/ breaking news).
Interface
The main menu is a slider with 4 cards containing:
1. Subscription management
2. Buttons See the latest and Share
3. A slide that calls up Brexit Britain analytics.
4. The Pub quiz about EU.
The digests are presented in a standard way. Concise analytical reports are displayed in text messages with quick replies which allow reading related materials.
+ Twitter BBC Bot can automatically generate charts on election results.
+ Telegram Bot in Uzbek has to send the latest news (but it doesn’t).
+ Besides, there is one more Telegram Bot which sends news all right but is not mentioned on BBC official website. On the other hand, it promotes Chatfuel platform. Looks like this bot is created by fans.
Moreover, BBC reports that it is going to use cognitive technologies of IBM Watson for development of BBC News chatbot. It means, there will be one more BBC chatbot soon.
I believe that BBC has created a confusing situation contradicting to an old principle “Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity”, and also the one about “the quality over quantity”. If someone just wants to read BBC news in messaging app, he or she will be forced to try and understand all these bots, operating and non-operating, official and fan-made. But this brings us to another topic — the strategy of positioning a company on messaging platforms.
11. ABC NewsFacebook Messenger
Features
- Sends news (a user can set up topics and time);
- Searches by keywords;
- Collects feedback;
- Offers podcasts(!). At last, we have found multimedia in a bot!
Interface
Multiple-level branched menu using all three levels (maximum possible in Facebook) gives quick access to various features. The only thing I couldn’t find there was an item “view news by topics” although such feature is available.
Articles come in text messages with pictures. We can read them in Messenger directly, without webview.
A slider with links appears with results of search only. The news by topics are displayed as single cards.
The podcasts are opened in a webview.
This friendly Aussie bot sends lots of nice GIFs, uses emoji and has pictures on buttons.
It is made on Chatfuel platform, and seems to be based on the same template as TechCrunch, but is far more pleasing!
12. Esquire Russia on Facebook Messenger
Features
- Displays latest news;
- Searches by keywords;
- Sends news (you can set up time (morning, day, evening), frequency (every day, once every two or every three days))
Interface
Persistent menu: News, Search, More (Notifications, Help, myWidget — a link to the platform).
Digests are displayed in sliders. I was puzzled by the fact that two of three buttons in a card have different labels but do the same thing — open an article in a webview.
13. Kommersant on Telegram
Features
- Sends news (a user can set up time (morning, day, evening) frequency(every day, once every two or every three days)
- Displays latest news;
- Searches by keywords.
Interface
labelled “More News” looks something like “M…ws” and “Help” looks like “elp”
The menu contains poorly designed buttons: their titles are not fully visible because of their placement.
The labels of menu items shift in the course of interaction. For example, the News button changes to “More news” after you press it and view some articles .
Digests are displayed as series of messages: a picture in a separate message, a headline in text messages, and a message with two buttons. Both of them open a story in a webview, the first one sends you to the website, and the other opens it in a widget. Never try and click the first button, and then the other for the same article — it will freeze the bot.
14. Klopsbot on Telegram
A bot of “the most popular news website of Kaliningrad”
Features
- Sends news (a user can set up time, topics, digest type);
- Displays digests: Hot news and Popular news (a user can choose a period: for a day, for three days, for a week).
Interface
The menu has such items: News, Popular, Settings, Info.
The digests are presented as series of text messages with a headliner and a link. articles can be read in a webview .
15. Telangana Today on Facebook Messenger
Features
- Sends digests of two types: daily digest and breaking news; no settings available;
- Displays digests.
Interface
The features are on the whole like in other bots, but because of the interface, they are not so comfortable to use.
The persistent menu on the left contains items Home, Topics, More
Home calls up the main menu — a slider with four cards. Each of them has three buttons which are grouped not logically at all, for example, in a card titled Customized news for you, we find Business News, Tech News и Top News.
Press Topics and you will see five Quick replies with — surprise! — the same labels as in the main menu. But here, part of them hides under fifth quick replies item called “More”. And what is also noticeable, the digests with the same titles differ. So, the Top news in the Main menu slider is not the same as the Top news on Quick replies.
More in the persistent menu contains Subscription management, Share option, Information about the bot.
Digests look as usual, and they even provide not only a webview but also a summary in a text message.
16. HBR Bot for Slack
Features
- Sends to Slack advice of Harvard Business Review (a user can set up frequency: daily/weekly, and time: we can input any time, not like in other chatbots with their strict limits);
- Additionally, you can study use cases and experts’ opinion.
Interface
Articles are in plain text, without any pictures or links. You can get a link to a full article with a special command.
17. Bing News on Skype
Features
Searches for latest news by keywords using Bing.
Interface
News are displayed as single links (despite the fact that sliders in Skype exist). You can read or view news (the bot often finds video) only after you visit a link. Before you click it you never know what type of content the bot has found.
18. BotCube on Telegram
Sends news about bots in text messages with links to detailed articles, sometimes with images. Time to time sends messages with voting buttons.
19. Washington Post on Facebook Messenger
The chatbot of this relatively big company (Washington Post Facebook page has 6 M of likes, VentureBeat has 439,000, TechCrunch has 2,7M, у CNN has 29 M) can show Top news on demand. When you first subscribe to it, you can press a Top Stories button. In future, you will have to input the request manually. No persistent menu. No broadcasting.
The stories are presented in a slider with links to the website. Created on Motion AI platform.
20. Manchester United Updates on Facebook Messenger
Sends news of Manchester United. No more features. Stories are sent as single cards (looks like they haven’t got enough articles for a slider), the news is opened in a webview .
Let’s summarize what we have seen.
The majority of bots offer to send news with various settings and displaying various types of digests.
Regarding the broadcasting, some media companies give the users full freedom of subscription management. They let their subscribers set up time, frequency, region, topics and even deliver news about a particular company or a sports team. Others offer only limited possibilities for customization or do not imply any customization at all.
News digests are usually presented:
- In Facebook Messenger bots in sliders,
- In Telegram, Line, and Kik — as links.
The majority of bots allow reading articles only on a website/in a webview. Personally I think that the option to read a summary in a messaging app before opening the full story in a webview is more prominent and convenient. It gives the impression of more personalized and carefully prepared news for messengers audience and also gives more choice.
The communication style of news chatbots is mostly formal, they just provide instructions and describe their abilities. Only several bots interact in more relaxed and friendly way, send GIFs and emoji, have thematic pictures on their buttons. This depends not only on the brand, company style, and the audience but also on the possibilities of the platforms where the bots were developed.
It is crucial for a company to look after the chatbot it has launched. Lots of bots were turned down and did not appear on our list because they were working inappropriately or didn’t function at all — although they were mentioned in different sources as active. If a chatbot does not answer to users, or promises to search news by keywords and appears to lie, or offers to send random materials about cats (that was the case with Meduza bot), but fails to do so — asubscriber will be upset.
So, if you are tech-savvy news lover, we hope, our article will help you to choose the best bot to stay updated without leaving a messaging app. And if you are a representative of a media company — no matter, a big or smallone — let it be useful to understand what is hot in the world of news bots and plan a perfect agent for you.
