Maybe youve noticed, but theres been an influx of interest in bots in the past few weeks. It all started with the disastrous launch of Microsofts Twitter bot Tay, but the tech world wasnt deterred and weve seen chatbots launching in Skype, Kik and, most recently, Facebook Messenger.

We spoke to some of the bots which have launched so far, and picked out five of the best (or at least most interesting) that we encountered below.

CNN

Whats it on? Facebook Messenger

If you get over-excited at the name, and start imagining some futuristic Her-style AI on the other end, youre likely to be disappointed by your first experiences with bots. CNNs bot is a good example of what theyre actually capable of. Its essentially a glorified search engine, serving up to three stories at a time based on what you type.

You can enter a particular search term or just ask for the top stories, then tap through to read the story of your choice on the web (not, disappointingly, on Facebooks Instant Articles or somehow within the bot window). Its also possible to see stories based on your previous reading – though Im not sure how this algorithm works, given that based on my questions about Donald Trump the bot decided that I was really interested in NFL stories.

H&M

Whats it on? Kik

One of the first retail brands to jump on the bot bandwagon, H&M looks likely to set the template for those that follow. After asking a few basic questions to establish what kind of style clothes you might be interested in – selecting your gender, a preferred outfit from a selection of photos and a short description of your style – it asks for a piece of clothing and then shows an outfit of four items built around it, complete with a combined price.

Rather than typed commands, this all relies on pre-scripted buttons. That might not fit the imagined promise of trading fashion tips with an AI, but its a smart choice that cuts down on touchscreen typing and guides you through the process clearly. If you like any of the items it suggests, you can select shop at the end of the process – or tap the relevant picture at any point along it – to be taken to its listing page online.

Shop Spring

Whats it on? Facebook Messenger

Retail app Shop Spring has gone a slightly different way with its bot offering, narrowing down items in a way thats closer to a mobile web shopping experience.

It filters you through a process, asking whether youre looking for mens or womens, then what kind of items, then sub-categories, then price range, before serving up a small selection of items fitting that description.

Its efficient, if not especially novel, but Shop Spring also adds the ability to ask a question about your chosen item. This points towards the potential of bots in the future, dealing with more granular requests – but as it stands, the bot doesnt seem to be able to answer basic questions. A question about the waistband of a pair of shorts led to an apologetic response that it does not look like we carry waistbands.

Summarize

Whats it on? Skype

Skype has by far the least intuitive process for adding bots weve seen so far. It failed to integrate them into the regular list of contacts, displayed long strings of numbers and letters instead of a friendly username (so that Summarize became the rather less catchy 28:deac2ccb-5a43-4d59-82fb-f75d1cc95ec0) and in some cases sent out contact requests that went unanswered.

For this reason, we werent able to try out the interesting-sounding Murphy Bot (named, we can only presume, after our own illustrious editor) which promises images that illustrate your what if questions. Instead, we sampled the range of Bing bots, including Summarize, which promises to condense the content of any URL you give it into a brief bullet-pointed synopsis. Its a great idea, though currently the algorithm appears to just grab the first, second and final paragraph of whatever you feed it.

Detective Kees: Probable Cause

Whats it on? Facebook Messenger

One of the most common early uses for chatbots is as a way of telling stories. Detective Kees is one of the better examples weve sampled, serving up text and images to serve up a whodunnit plot. As one of the two detectives on a murder case, you make occasional choices to guide the story. Its essentially a basic version of the interactive fiction and text adventure games which have been around since the dawn of PC gaming.

Its not fantastically well-written or original, but theres something compelling about seeing these messages landing in your inbox. Probably the most effective feature of Detective Kees is the timing of messages. As with a real Messenger conversation, there are pauses between each message. This seems to be more of a technical necessity than an artistic choice, but theres a potential to do something really interesting with it as a storytelling tool.