The simplicity and power of chat bots.

I’ve been fascinated by the possibilities of chat bots as applications. The first to leave a strong impression on me was SkeddyBot, a reminder bot for Telegram Messenger. It opened my eyes to how practical chat bots can be, is my most used application (other than Telegram) on a given day, and inspired me to solve challenges using this format.

They are analog and limiting, though there is beauty in constraint. Instead of spending time working out infinite styling details, making sure to fulfill every requirement of the App Store, for every available screen, you can focus fully on text-based logic to get your user from A to B in the fewest steps possible.

Give it a try: start a chat with BotFather to create a bot and grab its API key, fire up your favorite IDE, and get busy. The Python Telegram Bot library is a priceless tool to get started, with an amazing community behind it.