Bots on Twitter they have a bad reputation because we are accustomed to call it that) exclusively to accounts automated who try to impersonate legitimate users, normally for advertising purposes or manipulation.
But Twitter allows developers to use accounts to run small programs automatizadores of tasks. In some cases, these are interactive, and allow us to use them to make life easier when it comes to handling information in Twitter.
What we need, for example, to download a video? Maybe create reminders relating to tweets? All that we can do it with bots. Here is a small sample:
Thread Reader
Sometimes, the threads of Twitter are home to some of the most interesting we can find in this social network. But many are little comfortable to read in this format (and the thing gets worse if we try to share the URL with people not fond of Twitter).
Fortunately, Thread Reader (@ThreadReaderApp) allows us, if we answer to the thread mentioning the bot and the word “unroll”create a URL in which we will be able to see all the tweets of the thread as if they were different paragraphs of the same post of a blog. And from there we can, even, save everything as a PDF.
DownloadThisVideo
To download a video embedded in a tweet it is not a trivial task: there is no resource to make a click with the right mouse button and select “Save image as”, as is the case with the still images. That is why it is possible that you’ve ever seen any other twitterers respond to one of those tweets quoting the user to “@this_vid”.
Behind the user is the bot DownloadThisVideo, whose purpose is very simple: to respond to those replies with links to download the videos in question in a simple way through the server thisvid.space .
The problem is that bots on Twitter can only send 300 tweets automated every 3 hours, and the huge popularity of DownloadThisVideo usually put to the test this limitation, by preventing @this_vid notify you even if the download URL was already active.
A trick: given that the URL always has the following structure: thisvid.space + user name of the tweeter applicant, you can try to enter the same approximately 1 min. after having asked you to download the video.
Remind Me Of This Tweet
If a tweet gets your attention, but you don’t have time at the moment to investigate the matteryou can do two things. A, add the tweet to “Saved items”with what you are in danger of being forgotten in that transcript the digital section of lost and found objects.
The second option is to use the bot Remind Me of This Tweet (@RemindMe_OfThis), that you will remind you of the existence of the tweet in question within a time: two weeks, two hours, tomorrow night, the 3 of August… according to yourself to choose. Provided, of course, say it in English (and in the simplest way possible).
To ensure that you have understood well your request, the bot will respond informing you of when you will remember, exactly, the existence of the tweet. If something has failed, respond “cancel” and ready. If not, when the time comes to respond to the tweet mencionándote.
Note: “Remind Me Tweets” is a bot with similar functions, which we have already discussed in Engadget.
Tweetstamp
OpenTimestamps intended to be a standard format for the “time stamps” online, that enable to prove the existence of a certain content by adding its hash to the blockchain of Bitcoin. Tweetstamp what used to be able to demonstrate the existence of a tweet before he deleted, as a more reliable alternative to the always manipulated screen shots.
All you have to do to use it is answer to the tweet that we want to sealmentioning @tweet_stamp and the word “stamp” in the response. In just a few seconds, the bot will answer by providing a permanent link with all the information about the tweet.
A second alternative is to send the URL of the tweet to be sealed by DM to @tweet_stamp: in this way, the bot also will respond to us privately and no one will know that we want to have good place the proof of the existence of the tweet.
BBC Micro Bot
In the educational arena, the british triumphed in the 80’s a computer called the BBC Micro that, among other things, allowed programming in BASIC.
Your current fans have proposed honoring with @BBCMicroBot, which allows us to mention in a tweet with BASIC code and that respond to us with a small video that shows the result of the execution of the same.
It is clear that 280 characters does not give for great virtuosity of programming, but decidedly curious.
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The news
Download videos to create reminders on tweets: some of the best bots interactive Twitter
it was originally published in
Engadget
by
Marcos Merino
.
