Show HN: HeartsBot, a dating chatbot for Facebook Messenger
http://m.me/heartsbot
This is my first chat bot, and I thought I'd give some insight in making it.
My philosophy on the "chatbots revolution" has been actually towards avoiding any sort of conversational-like UI. Rather, the chat bot presents to you a menu (almost like a website might) and avoids any other conversation. Dan Grover's excellent article (http://dangrover.com/blog/2016/04/20/bots-wont-replace-apps.html) lended much inspiration towards this philosophy, and I'm convinced also that the reason chatbots had succeeded in other parts of the world was because of their simplicity & speed of access, rather than any novelty reason that the bot could "sound like a human." Therefore, the chat bot gives you a brief menu (Browse Profiles, Edit Profiles, and Matches) and clicking on each one opens a web page, to which you are automatically logged into.
The interesting thing about this is ease of access. There are no app downloads, no passwords, no sign-up/registrations, no bookmarks needed, and no permission dialogs. A simple message gets a user all set up. What's more, the app has access to some basic public Facebook information about you such as name, gender, and photo so it can give you a bit more personalized treatment.
Anyways, please check out the app and let me know what you think!