My-Steemit-Portal: Facebook Messenger Bot

What is the project about?

In different parts of the world, the point of access to the internet for most people is the mobile phone. According to this article, mobile internet has surpassed desktop in usage. There are suprisingly a plethora of individuals who have used the internet for the first time in mobile phones rather than in desktops. This is a big reason why important companies prioritize mobile than the web most of the time.

Source: wikimedia.org

With mobile phones, come messaging apps. Arguably, this is the killer app of mobile devices. Entire ecosystems of services live in messaging apps (like WeChat in China) which provide features like communication, shopping, sending money, among other things. In places like China, there seems to be a dominant messaging app that people use. In my country, the Philippines, it can't be argued that the most used is Facebook's Messenger app.

Facebook has been ubiquitous here (Philippines). It is easier to get unlimited Facebook and Messenger access than the internet. Internet service providers give these services because this is what the people want and what they use. Internet with Facebook/Messenger has become, at least in my opinion, a form of utility.

The goal of this project is to allow users that primarily use Messenger to access their Steem accounts conveniently via conversation with a bot. For now, the user is able to view his wallet and profile. As this project progresses, we will be adding more features and functions that would make using this bot to access Steem even more beneficial and fun.

Below is the current demo of the project. The bot will mainly utilize user interface items (like buttons and links) to interact with the user and will require less text input (aside from the mandatory ones). This will lessen user confusion and makes the experience more fluid. The bot is able to save your username and will provide a webview of your status and wallet. It also provides the ability to view other people's profile and wallet. The bot also has the ability to check if the username is valid or not.

Technology Stack

Technologies used in this project (as of now):

• Python
• Django
• steem-python
• Facebook Messenger Platform and API
• pymessenger
• see requirements.txt for the rest of the libraries used

Roadmap

• Submit bot for Facebook approval
• If viable, add blog/posts sharing capabilities
• Add blockchain and cryptocurrency/fiat currency conversion features
• Will assess needed features as project progresses
• Bug fixes and code refactoring

How to contribute?

If you have suggestions or would like to help in this project, go to the repository and submit an issue.

Suggestions are greatly appreciated, please comment down below.
Cheers.

---

Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

---