Neato Robotics’ smart and connected vacuum cleaners have just become smarter with the addition of a Neato Chatbot for Facebook and Messenger applications. The company made the announcement at CES 2017 in Las Vegas, and also revealed the “Neato Developer Network” designed to expand smart robot vacuum integration with third party applications.
Neato Robotics has announced the launch of its Neato Chatbot for Facebook and Messenger, available for all vacuum cleaners in the Botvac Connected range, including the Botvac Connected, Botvac D3 Connected, and Botvac D5 Connected. The idea behind the integration with Facebook is to allow customers to interact with their Botvac Connected vacuum cleaners remotely. Through the Neato Chatbot, users will have the ability to connect and “chat” with their vacuum cleaners using Facebook Messenger, and issue a variety of commands including basic tasks such as “start” or “stop cleaning”. Furthermore, the Neato Chatbot will give users the ability to view detailed information about the connected robot vacuum cleaner, and can also be used for accessing support services.
In addition to the Neato Chatbot for Facebook, Neato Robotics made a second announcement at CES in regards to its new Neato Developer Network. According to the press release, the company found that numerous third party developers wish to integrate their products with Neato’s robot vacuum cleaners, and to this end the company has created the Neato Developer Network, providing official documentation and SKDs (software development kits) for multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, and JavaScript. The company says that the Developer Network relies on OAuth 2.0 authorization, which also allowed the creation of the aforementioned Neato Chatbot for Facebook, and permitted the integration with Amazon Alexa. The company further revealed that up until now, more than 100 third party developers – including SmartThings – have signed up for the Neato Developer Network. Developer Advocate at SmartThings, Tim Slagle, commented on joining the platform saying that “Open APIs are the backbone of IoT (Internet of Things) and the future of our connected world.” This is why, in Tim Slagle’s view, it is very important for device manufacturers and platform creators to collaborate and “allow the creation of unique and meaningful solutions”.