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Prompt — The command line for the real world
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Chris Messina
Top Hunter
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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.
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@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.
@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. :)
@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!
@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.
@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!
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.
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?
Thanks @irfaan. support@promptapp.io is working now. Please contact us to get started building your own Prompt commands!
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
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?
@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!
@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!
@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?
@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!
This is interesting and right in line with what @chrismessina wrote about recently.
Best of luck on PH!
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...
@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
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!
@weather m4k2r7
sorry, the zipcode was not recognized in your message
that's 'cause it's a postal code
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!
@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.
@marcuscoh You could always submit Prompt commands from Slack on your desktop if you prefer ;)
@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.
@syedaliahmed @tomhadfield A good question Is this an evolved Fetch - what happened to that one?
@heathermhuang Great idea, Heatherm. We will add this to the product roadmap. Thank you!
Hi Tom, I have been playing with your product and I have to say that it is a very impressive start. I see tremendous possibility for what it can become.
However, my biggest concern is around if you can achieve critical mass or scale through structured commands. Structure creates friction and hurts adoption. I believe you will need to allow people to express intent through natural language and interpret it intelligently (or) provide them an interactive and smart bot assistant that can help the user capture this intent. While some may be comfortable using a command line mode, most people expect to chat with a business or a device just like the way they talk to a friend.
The ease, convenience and simplicity of engaging with an invisible app has to be significantly better than directly using the native app (or) other interaction models available in the mobile OS. If not, it seems hard to justify learning and using a new interface.