Chris Messina

Prompt - The command line for the real world

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Chris Messina
Top Hunter
Hunter
I'm curious what they mean by "real world"... I'd expect to be able to text things in real life, like a phone telephone poll or goldfish tank and get a response.
Tom Hadfield
@chrismessina If your goldfish tank has an API, then there will be a Prompt command! We've got thousands of commands in the pipeline. You'll be able to send "@nest +5" to change the temperature on your thermostat, or "@rachio on" to turn on your sprinkers, or "@philipshue off" to turn off your lightbulbs. In addition to IoT device control, we're also working on building Prompt commands for commerce - like "@drizly 12 heineken" to get beer on-demand, or "@dominos large hawaiian" to get a pizza delivered. There's an entire ecosystem to be built. Our vision is to be the first platform with one million bots.
Rachel Kern
@chrismessina My initial guess was IoT. I can't wait for my friend to show me how to make my plants tweet when they need to be watered. :)
Tom Hadfield
@willkernforfood @chrismessina If you buy one of these http://www.parrot.com/usa/produc... then we'd be happy to build a @parrot command for you on Prompt!
Ali Ahmed
@tomhadfield @chrismessina @nest @rachio @philipshue @drizly @dominos Seems great at first glance, but could be too much effort having to remember all the different command lines and defining services to work seamlessly, but wish you all the best.
Colin Pirillo
@tomhadfield @chrismessina how are you planning to build so many commands from APIs? Have you considered any open source, community driven approaches? I bet if you let developers build a command for each API they were interested in, you'd have a command for everything!
Tom Hadfield
Hi everyone. I'm the CEO of Prompt. We are building the command line interface for the real world. You can send short text commands via SMS/Slack/etc to access services, make purchases and control IoT devices. Prompt is an open platform with tools for third party developers to build commands. Just send a text 650-666-2299 to get started!
Danny Lowney
This is interesting and right in line with what @chrismessina wrote about recently. Best of luck on PH!
Ben Tossell
@dannylowney @chrismessina yeah, was a great read too
Tom Hadfield
Just in case you missed it, here is Chris's excellent article on conversational commerce: http://j.mp/convcomm-2016 It's the latest in a series of thoughtful articles on conversational user interfaces: The Search for the Killer Bot: http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/6... On Bots, Conversational Apps and Fin: http://go.theinformation.com/b5fa6f Introducing the exciting new future of Messaging: https://medium.com/build-with-in... Will this year see the rise of the chat bots? http://ijnet.org/en/blog/will-ye... The Great Bot Rush of 2015-16: http://continuations.com/post/13...
Omar Pera
@tomhadfield in case you do not want to miss the latest insights about chat bots, I created last week a newsletter which is growing very fast: http://chatbotsweekly.com
Tom Hadfield
@ompemi Thanks Omar - I've subscribed!
Andy Mauro
Congrats Tom - only the beginning no doubt. Where from here? How many @verbs do you expect people to remember? How do they discover new @verbs? Any thoughts on how to parameterize beyond a single variable?
Tom Hadfield
@andymauro Hi Andy. You can discover/browse Prompt commands by logging into www.promptapp.io on your phone - it's essentially our "Bot Store" - or just by sending /list. We believe you're going to remember all the commands that are useful for you. If you take Uber every day, you'll remember "@uber from X to Y". If you buy shares, you'll remember "@etrade buy FB 100". We're building a command line system based on commands and syntax, rather than a natural language 'assistant', because it's quicker to use and more accurate!
Andy Mauro
@tomhadfield, got it -- just checked it out, very cool. I do agree there's a sweet spot between NLU & CMD that we're all seeking. Great start!
tom meagher
@tomhadfield I'm all for *invisible apps* – aren't some of these commands/actions better in their native apps? Why does someone turn to Prompt instead of opening up Uber, eTrade, Nest, etc., where you have more control?
Tom Hadfield
@thomasmeagher Some tasks are best suited to a graphic user interface, while others are best executed from the command line. There will be times you want to see how far away the Uber driver is before booking a car, and you should use the Uber app. There will be other times when you just want to get it booked as quickly as possible. With Prompt, you could set a favorite called #airport (an alias for "@uber from office to SFO" for example) or #tacos (an alias for "@postmates three pork belly tacos from tyson's") so you can just fire off a one word text message, and it's done. A major benefit of Prompt is that you don't have to switch context. If you're doing work in Slack, it's a pain to open up separate iOS app every time you want to do something on your phone. As we build out the Prompt ecosystem with thousands of commands, you'll never need to leave your favorite messaging app again!
Kostas Xiradakis
Oh no 😣 No GIFs?? 😟
Ghost Kitty
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Chris Messina
Top Hunter
Hunter
@dxripunov 650-666-2299?
Ray Wu
This looks like something we could be interested in. How do we hook up to your API?
Tom Hadfield
@raywu We would love to add an @magicbus command on Prompt so folks can get schedules and make MagicBus reservations by SMS, Slack, Messenger, etc. I'll follow-up with you by email. Thanks!
Ben Tossell
Same premise as Peach with their magic words...and slack with their commands I think this type of communication is getting bigger and bigger - just @ something Mentioned recently in Story in a Bottle Podcast episode Chris talks about how people think this type of communication is new but it's actually an old way of communicating, now becoming more prevalent in our day to day.
Ben Tossell
@thomasmeagher yeah thats what chris mentions in the podcast :)
Zaheer Mohiuddin
This is basically Google SMS remade: http://theinnovativeeducator.blo...
Hien Lam
I like the concept here. The only challenge for me is providing Prompt with the right information to get info. For example, I like that I can get flight status info. But I need to put in the flight #. By the time I look that up, I can see the flight status without going through Prompt. Trying to figure out how I can integrate this into my day. Any thoughts?
Hudson-Peralta
I love this idea! I used to use Google SMS all the time. A couple thoughts/ideas. - Maybe save default items (zip code for @weather, favorite theatre for @showtimes, etc.) - Allow users to enter a day in @weather (@weather 48226 Saturday) - Post your /list online
Tom Hadfield
@hudsonperalta All great ideas! We'll get these done asap.
irfaan
Just FYI - support@promptapp.io is bouncing, but it is listed as the email address for requesting dev access. How do we get in touch to start working with Prompt?
Tom Hadfield
Thanks @irfaan. support@promptapp.io is working now. Please contact us to get started building your own Prompt commands!
Ali Ahmed
@tomhadfield is this what Fetch has pivoted to, or a separate project?
Philip Wilkinson
@syedaliahmed @tomhadfield A good question Is this an evolved Fetch - what happened to that one?
William Dinkel
This is cool! Do you have to know these little @ handles or is there a way to look them up or have an app auto-identify them? Thanks for sharing!
Tom Hadfield
@williamdinkel Hi William. You can send "/list" to see a list of commands, or go to www.promptapp.io and login to browse all the available commands on the web.
Heatherm Huang
Interesting product, can user send the commands via email as well?
Tom Hadfield
@heathermhuang Great idea, Heatherm. We will add this to the product roadmap. Thank you!
Will Feldman
Is there a list of all the available commands available?
Tom Hadfield
@willfeldman3 You can send /list to 650-666-2299 to see all commands, or login on www.promptapp.io on your phone to discover/browse commands on the mobile web.
Ruchi Goel
Concept sounds interesting; looking forward to use it in some real world scenario
Daniel Fitzpatrick
Sign up button doesn't seem to work on iOS Safari😟
Emil Stahl
International support?
Tom Hadfield
@emilstahl We're working on it - coming soon!
Chuck Kahn
@weather m4k2r7 sorry, the zipcode was not recognized in your message that's 'cause it's a postal code
Tom Hadfield
@chuckkahn Support for Canada and other countries coming soon!