Bots that live on your phone, not on a server

In most messengers, bots live on a company's server: everything you write to them goes there, gets stored and, often, analysed. In xox we turned that around. Today we're opening bots: small tools that live inside the app, on your phone, with no network access. You'll find them in Settings → Bots.

Nine to start

• xox Daily: one card a day with a real privacy tip and an “on this day” from history.
• xox Notes: write anything and it's saved as a note or a to-do.
• xox Expenses: “12.50 coffee” and you have today's and this month's totals.
• xox Habits: up to seven daily habits, with streaks and an evening card.
• xox Birthdays: a card on the day and a week before.
• xox Decide: coin, dice, or one option from a list.
• xox Passwords: passphrases, passwords and PINs; the chat is forgotten as soon as you close it.
• xox Welcome: greets every new member of your groups.
• xox Creator: the bot that builds bots.

Permissions in one line

Before you install a bot, it tells you in one line what it can do: read and write in its own chat, keep its data in xox's vault on your phone (encrypted under your PIN if you've set one), remind you at a time you set, or post in the groups where you add it. Nothing else. It has no network, it doesn't see your contacts or your other chats, and you can pause it or remove it with one tap.

Your own bot in a minute

With xox Creator you choose a type, give it a name and an avatar, and add the replies, the reminders or the question. That's it: the bot is signed with your key and installed on your phone. Send it to anyone as a normal message; they see a card, check what it can do and tap Install. If someone changes a single character on the way, xox won't install it.

Bots in your groups

If you run a group, open its info sheet and tap Bots. A welcome for new members, dice for quick decisions, the daily card, or the auto-replies you made for your shop or your club. They run on your phone, as the admin, while xox is open, and everyone sees their messages marked as bot. Only the admin's bots can carry that mark: nobody can impersonate one.

What they don't do

They don't connect to the internet, they don't read your other chats and they don't run when xox is closed: a reminder that was due arrives when you open the app. If a bot hangs, xox stops it within seconds. The whole catalogue is at xox.is/bots.