Use bots in chats

Add bots to a group chat, choose which messages each one receives, and talk to them with @mentions in the chat and in threads.

Who can add and manage bots

In a group chat, the owner and managers can add bots, change their trigger modes and remove them. In a feed chat, only the owner can.
You can’t add bots to direct chats or to My Memo.
You can add only bots that you own. Paused bots can’t be added, and a bot can be in a chat only once.
A bot’s owner can also remove the bot from any feed chat, and from any group they’re still a member of. If you’ve left a group, ask its owner or a manager to remove your bot, or pause the bot everywhere.
Other members don’t see the chat’s bot settings, but bots in the chat appear in their @mention suggestions. Bots aren’t listed as chat members.

Add a bot to a chat

On iPhone, Android and the web app:

Open the group, then open Chat info (the info icon).
Select Manage chat. Under Group Management (Feed Management in a feed chat), select Bots.
Select +, or Add Bot if the chat has no bots yet.
Select Add next to the bot.

If you see No Available Bots, you have no active bots that aren’t already in the chat. Create a bot, or switch a paused one back on.

You can also start from the bot: open it in My Bots, then in Conversations (Chats in the web app) select Add to Chat and choose a chat. This list shows the group chats you own.

In the desktop app, open the chat first. Then go to Settings > App > My bots, open Manage bot under the bot, click Add to current chat… and confirm with Add bot.

Choose when a bot responds

Each bot has a trigger mode that decides which messages from the chat it receives.

Mode	What the bot receives
When mentioned	Messages and thread replies that @mention it. This is the default.
All human messages	Every message and thread reply that people send, except thread replies addressed only to someone else (see Talk to a bot). Some web app screens call this All messages.
Manual only	No messages. The bot’s software can still post.

Bots never receive messages from other bots or from webhooks.
@everyone and @here don’t count as mentioning a bot.
In every mode, a bot is told when someone adds or removes an emoji reaction on a message in the main chat.
A private conversation that you open from a bot’s profile uses All human messages.
Trigger modes don’t apply to hosted AI assistants or ChatGPT agents. They respond only to their owner; see Hosted AI assistants and ChatGPT agents.

Change a bot’s default mode

The bot’s owner picks the default when creating an API bot (Trigger mode) and can change it later in the bot’s edit screen (Trigger Mode). See Edit a bot.

Set a mode for one chat

The chat’s owner and managers can give a bot a different mode in that chat. Use bot default follows the bot’s own setting.

From the chat: Chat info > Manage chat > Bots. Select the mode shown under the bot, for example Use bot default, and choose another.
From the bot’s home: in Conversations (Chats in the web app), open the menu next to the chat, select Trigger Mode and choose a mode.

Owning a bot isn’t enough to change its mode in a chat: you must be that chat’s owner or a manager. The desktop app has no trigger mode settings.

Talk to a bot

Type @ in the message box. Bots in the chat appear in the suggestions with a BOT tag (Bot in the desktop app).
Choose the bot, or type its @username. Letter case doesn’t matter.
Send the message. The bot usually replies in the thread under your message. Some bots also post new messages in the chat.

To continue, reply in the thread:

A bot in When mentioned mode receives a thread reply only if the reply @mentions it. Include the bot’s @username in every follow-up.
A bot in All human messages mode receives every thread reply, unless the reply @mentions someone else (a person or another bot) and not this bot.

Bot status and Response activity

In the chat, the thread link under a message shows bot progress next to the reply count, for example 👀 · 2 replies. Every app shows these:

Sign	Meaning
👀	A bot is writing a reply in this thread.
👍	A bot finished a reply that you haven’t read yet.
⚠️	The latest bot reply was interrupted.

Bots can also show a typing line in the chat with their name and a short status, such as Thinking….

In the thread, the iPhone, Android and web apps show a status line under each bot reply:

Status	Meaning
Working…	The bot is still writing. It may show a step instead, such as Searching… or Using a tool….
Taking longer than usual…	Nothing has changed for 30 seconds. This doesn’t mean the reply has failed.
Finished · time	The reply is complete.
Updated · time	The bot changed the reply after finishing it.
Response interrupted	The reply stopped before it was finished.

Select the status line to open Response activity. It shows when the reply started, when its content last changed, when it completed, and the steps the bot reported. If a bot reply you aren’t looking at changes, Bot response updated appears in the thread; select it to jump to the reply.

In the desktop app, a reply in progress shows a single line, such as Thinking…, Searching… or Reading the thread…, until the answer replaces it. The desktop app has no status line or Response activity.

Interactive cards

Some bots send a card: a title, some text, label and value details, and up to 4 buttons. You can answer on iPhone, Android, the desktop app and the web app.

Select a button on the card. A red button asks you to confirm first.
Wait while the card shows Sending response…. When the card shows your choice, your answer is posted.

Your answer is an ordinary reply in your name in the card’s thread, so everyone in the chat can see it. For a card in the main chat, the reply goes into that message’s thread. It mentions the bot and names your choice, for example:

@releasebot Approve: Publish the draft?
[Reply 9876 · card publish · choice approve]

If sending fails, the card shows an error and its buttons work again.

Buttons don’t work on a reply that’s still being written. In the web app, they also don’t work on cards in the main chat.
You can answer a card once. On iPhone, Android and the desktop app, the card keeps showing your choice after a restart and on your other devices. Other people can still answer the same card. The bot decides what to do with each answer.
In the web app, and in older versions of the other apps, the answer isn’t remembered: the buttons can work again, for example after the thread is reopened.
Older desktop versions show the card’s code instead of the card.

Pause or remove a bot

There’s no button to stop a bot’s reply while it’s being written. To stop a bot, use one of these options:

Goal	Who can do it	How
Stop a bot in every chat	The bot’s owner	Pause the bot by switching off Active (desktop app: Pause).
Stop a bot receiving messages from one chat	The chat’s owner and managers	Set its mode in that chat to Manual only. Its software can still post.
Take a bot out of a chat	The chat’s owner and managers, and the bot’s owner	Remove it.
Pause a hosted AI assistant	Its owner	See Hosted AI assistants.
Pause a ChatGPT agent	Its owner	See ChatGPT agents.

If you’re not the chat’s owner or a manager, ask one of them.

Remove a bot from a chat

From the chat: Chat info > Manage chat > Bots. Select the trash icon (Remove) under the bot, then Remove in the Remove Bot dialog.
From the bot’s home: in Conversations (Chats in the web app), open the menu next to the chat, select Remove, then Remove in the Remove from Chat dialog.

The bot stops receiving messages from that chat. The desktop app can’t remove bots from chats.