Yahoo has been on the news more times than they want to. This time, however, they’re making the headlines with a new product announcement. Yahoo has just launched a text-based reminder bot named Captain.
Captain, the AI assistant
Aimed at families, Captain is a to-do list manager and a reminder assistant packed into one. You can use the bit to organise your lists, share activities, and even add an item to the grocery list. According to Yahoo, you can even set up reminders and get notifications when someone else in the family adds or updates something on the list.
No apps, just texts
The Captain bot is text message-based and so you don’t have to download any apps. You can get started right away by sending a message, saying “Hi” to 773-786. In a reply, you’ll get instructions on how to proceed using the bot.
Speaking about Captain,
“We wanted to make this product accessible for broad use. Texting was the natural path to take because it’s ingrained into how consumers coordinate with each other.”
Shani Clark, the senior director for product management in Yahoo, told VentureBeat.
What you can do with Captain
Here are a few commands that you can sent via text to your Captain bot.
- Show reminders
- Show reminders for [person/time]
- Show list
- Add item [name]
- Add member [name]
- Remind [person] of [task] on [date] at [time]
- Remind me to [task] on [date] at [time]
- Remove item [exact name]
- Remove item [number]
Here’s a full list of commands.