We’re excited to bring Captain to Facebook Messenger as part of the first wave of bots on the newly announced Chat Extensions feature, enabling people to use Captain seamlessly with their friends and family right in Messenger.
Captain on Messenger streamlines organization among groups, family, and friends for managing activities with a shared tasks list. Use Captain to figure out who’s bringing what on your next backpacking trip or plan for an upcoming potluck dinner – without leaving Messenger. With Captain, you can make plans with your favorite people without overloading them with tons of notifications and long, unorganized lists of requests and questions.
“We are delighted that Yahoo is launching Captain on Messenger,” said Stan Chudnovsky, Vice President of Product for Messenger. “This bot will help users simplify group coordination, which can get harder the larger the group and longer the thread. This experience makes that interaction seamless.”
To start using Captain on Messenger, just add the bot to your group conversation.
We launched Captain last month for text messaging to help families stay organized. We continue to iterate on our products to help users make life easier and more fun. Give Captain a try today and share feedback directly from the bot!
By Shani Clark, Senior Director, Product Management
We all know how busy life can get. It can be challenging to remember what we need at the grocery store or the schedule for the next soccer practice.
Now, available in the U.S., Captain is a bot assistant that helps manage lists and reminders for you and your family via text message. Gone are the days of interrupting your spouse’s workday with updated carpool information and fielding text messages from your kids about what they need from the store. And say goodbye to downloading apps to try and stay organized.
Captain streamlines family communications for sharing activities, setting reminders and updating a master shopping list. Text Captain to remind your partner to pick up the kids on Friday at 11am or add “paper towels and sugar” to the shopping list in real-time while they’re at the store. If you forget what’s on tap for the day, just ask Captain.
Using Captain is simple – nothing new to download, no passwords to remember – just text “Hi” to 773-786. Captain will text back setup instructions. Sprint customers will need to unblock shortened links to begin the process.
Since launching Answers Now in December, we’ve been thrilled by the response from the Q&A community. Within weeks of launch, thousands of you downloaded the app and posted thousands of questions – 90% of which have received multiple answers.
As we continue to iterate, our team has been hard at work building more social features to make it easier for you to interact. Check out the new features below:
Social Sharing: Easily share questions and answers to Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook pages. Also, share content from other mobile apps into Answers Now.
Question of the Day: Answers Now will feature one compelling question every day for the community to answer and comment on together.
Notification Controls: Customize notifications for each type of activity. Interested in being first on the scene for new questions? Just opt in!
Notification Stream: Icons will notify you when someone answers a question or if a question they are following gets answered.
Private Profiles: Make a profile private so others will only be able to see a username, picture, number of thanks and number of followers.
Updated Profile Stats: Profiles will now include the number of answers and questions, a list of followers and of people a user follows.
Announcements: Never miss a new feature! Learn about new updates to Answers Now in app instead of relying on app store downloads for updates.
We’re always interested in hearing how we can improve your experience. Download the app on iOS and Android, and keep sharing feedback through the “Send Feedback” option in the app.
Many questions, such as “what should I get my 50-year-old mother for the holidays?” or “what should photography hobbyists do when visiting Miami this weekend?” require human experience and insight to answer fully. Yahoo Answers was an early entry point for users to ask their community for insight and 300 million people sign on monthly to ask others for guidance.
Today, we’re excited to announce Yahoo Answers Now, which re-imagines the Q&A experience for mobile users. Available on iOS and Android phones in the U.S., the app helps users pose questions and receive quality answers quickly from members who have relevant experiences and expertise.
Key features include:
Matching: When you ask a question, we route it to qualified responders who have the experiences and expertise to provide a high quality answer.
Following: Gone are the days of having to manually remember user profiles. Follow users you respect to easily stay connected.
Give thanks: Use the “thank you” and emoji buttons to express appreciation.
Rich media: Craft awesome answers with a wider assortment of media, including images and links.
Blazing fast: Get notified immediately when someone answers your question or thanks you for a great answer.
Download Yahoo Answers Now from the App Store or Play Store today to give these features a whirl and tap into the insight of our community!
Big thanks to our early users for the great feedback. We’re always
interested in additional feedback, so please keep sharing (select the
“Send Feedback” option in the app)!
In time for Thanksgiving break, Yahoo is bringing you a couple servings of fun-loving bots to liven up the long weekend.
Popchat (@popchat), available on Kik for Android and iOS, is the perfect bot for trivia lovers to play with old friends and make new friends who share your trivia interests. Pick from a variety of categories – including music, TV and movies, crazy facts and more – then game on. You can chat during games to keep the competition exciting or challenge yourself in a single player game, all within Kik.
Our emoji-loving pet monkey, announced this summer and available on Kik and Messenger, is growing up! Monkeypet is hitting the road, ocean and skies in search of travel adventures. It can report on weather and news from around the world, as well as search the web for whatever content you’re interested in finding. Monkeypet has also learned to retrieve images, GIFs, and videos so you can have rich conversations with your friends. Say or type “skills” to check out these and our digital monkey’s other new talents.
With these bots, we continue to bring you engaging and entertaining experiences. Whether you are looking to expand your games collection, make new friends or train your Monkeypet, there’s a bot for that.
For a voice in improving these bots or shaping Yahoo’s future bots experience, share your thoughts with our team using the “Feedback” option.
As Week 8 of fantasy football kicks off, Yahoo is bringing you Blitz, available on the new Yahoo Bots app, to give you an extra edge in your league and dominate into the playoffs.
Blitz, our newest bot, is your ultimate assistant for all things fantasy football. Need quick help researching that hot waiver wire add? Have a few players on bye week and need advice on who to start in their place? Whether you’re sitting at 4-3, below .500, or just want to stay on top of your league, Blitz is the perfect tool to pair with our award-winning Yahoo Sports Fantasy app and help take your team to the next level.
Synced directly to your fantasy football team on Yahoo Sports, Blitz can swap out players in your starting lineup, pick up free agents, and give you the latest information on which players can help you win this week and beyond.
The new Yahoo Bots app brings you Blitz, along with the Yahoo bots —Yahoo Weather, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News and Monkey Pets — that you know and love in a single app. Download it to your mobile phone today from the App Store or Play Store.
By Zhen Jiang Zhuang and Karen Chin, Product Management, Yahoo Search
What did Gisele wear on the Rio catwalk? Did Hope Solo evoke cheers or jeers? Who are the contenders for the men’s 200 meter individual medley? Look no further than Yahoo Search to get up-to-speed on what’s happening in Rio.
Visual cards provide easy access to dynamic content – medal count, live schedule and other updates – and to statistics such as profiles on athletes, countries and venues. Yahoo is bringing these experiences directly to the Search results page, making it that much easier for you to find the information you seek.
As the games heat up, you can count on Yahoo Search to experience Rio on desktop, mobile and tablet.
Summer, the busiest travel and vacation season of the year, is in full swing. So, Yahoo analyzed data from millions of your searches and discovered how you’re celebrating the summer months.
Some surprising finds?
Vacation rentals are in and hotels are out. Combined, Airbnb and VRBO are 3X more popular than the No. 1 hotel chain, Marriott.
The number one destination this summer is Denver, Colorado beating out warmer destinations like San Diego, California and New Orleans, Louisiana.
BBQ classics are also getting a run for their money. Tuna salad made with cottage cheese in place of mayo (who would have guessed?) beat out beloved traditional dishes like pasta salad.
Fun inflatable rafts are all the rage with island floats coming in at #1, but apparently we also love swimming with the birds - swans are #4, followed by flamingos at #5.
Find out more, like where people are traveling and what airlines they’re using to get there, in the infographic below.
How is the Carolina Panthers’ defense? Who’s leading in the polls? Will Leo take home an award? We know you’re looking for answers so we’ve made a few changes to Yahoo Search on mobile web in the U.S. to bring your answers up front. Just pick up your iPhone!
Studying up before the Big Game?
Now, with a quick search for the Carolina Panthers or the Denver Broncos, you can see past score and schedule information, find the top performing players, and check out their entire roster, complete with current stats. Just click on an athlete, like Cam Newton, to learn more. We’ll even show you the live score as the two teams face off next weekend. And if you’re looking for a Golden State Warriors update, getting ready for MLB season or just want to learn more about the NHL, we’ve got you covered! Yahoo Search shows you the information you want for the “Big Four” and all major soccer leagues.
Following the 2016 presidential candidates ahead of the Iowa primary?
Since we know you often search for the latest poll results, how much money a candidate’s campaign has raised and top contributors, we want you to have access to this information without having to search-click, search-click, search. Without leaving the search results page, a query for a presidential hopeful will bring you this information up front. You can also research a candidate’s stance on big issues like healthcare and national security, to get up to speed and pick the right presidential hopeful in the upcoming primary.
Prepping for the Oscars?
A simple search for The Revenant, nominated for “Best Picture,” “Cinematography,” “Costume Design” and more, will get you to the results you’re looking for. Immediately find showtimes in a theater near you and what others think about it – 84% on Rotten Tomatoes – sounds like a must see. Not sure if it’s for you yet? You can also check out the trailer or a brief description. We’ll even bring you recommendations of other movies you might like.
And it isn’t only for the “big screen” – these awesome search results work for TV too. A search for Homeland will bring you the last aired episode, along with the list of seasons, taking you directly to get more details about an episode you’re interested in, who starred in it, and where you can stream it.
Before 2015 comes to a close, we’d like to share
some of the many improvements we’ve made in recent weeks to Yahoo Search on
mobile web in the U.S. Through constant iteration and experimentation, our aim
is that collectively, these small but mighty changes will connect you more
immediately with the answers you’re looking for, and help you discover
interesting and related information.
When
searching for your favorite celebrity, you’ll notice:
Twitter integration: In today’s
connected world, the best answers include the conversations and commentary that
are happening on social media. Now, we’ll connect you immediately with top
tweets related to your celebrity searches right on the results page.
A new image search: We’re bringing
you a new way to discover pictures of your favorite celebrities. Find photos of
the celebrity first, then explore additional photo sets based on trending
content that other users have engaged with– be it photos of Angelina Jolie’s
wedding dress, tattoos, red carpet look and more.
When
searching for the news of the day, you’ll see:
A results refresh: Now you can stay
on top of the latest news stories right from the search results page. We’ve
also tweaked our algorithm to bring you the most recent and popular stories up
top in the news results stream.
We’re AMP compatible: News in Yahoo
Search on mobile web is now compatible with a recently released mobile web
standard for Accelerated Mobile Pages (ie: AMP). AMP architecture is designed for pages to load super fast
on Mobile. News pages published with AMP would automatically direct users to
that experience on Yahoo Search.
You can take advantage of these updates by opening
your favorite mobile browser today and searching on Yahoo. You can also open
your mobile browser’s settings and set Yahoo as your default search engine.
