Send Groot A Text Message And He’ll Send One Right Back
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Here at GFR, we sincerely hoped to ride this wave of Guardians of the Galaxy excitement until the eventual sequel comes out. And we accept any and all forms of Guardians love that Marvel and its fanbase have to give us. And if that love happens to come in the form of a Groot text message chatbot, so be it.
Created by Twilio developer Ricky Robinett, the bot is about as close as we’ll ever get to actually having a real-life Groot to talk to through via text. All you have to do is send a message to (866) 740-4531, and you’ll get the very response you were hoping for: “I am Groot.” Just in case you thought the alien’s communicative skills may have branched out when the written word was introduced, or in the wake of his global popularity.
First introduced on Monday, the text bot has been an unmitigated…success? What I mean to say is, people have been using the “service” like crazy, despite the fact that the end result is the same thing every time. Though I guess it compares to sex in that way, and sex is pretty cool, whether a chatbot is involved or not. How many people have been using it?
Over 72,000 messages sent by Groot. And to think this was his reaction when I first gave him a cell phone: http://t.co/IxETpt9HsQ
— Ricky Robinett (@rickyrobinett) September 17, 2014
Go ahead and give it a try yourself. Ask him what Rocket Raccoon is like when people aren’t around. Ask him who he thinks will win “the big game” this weekend. Tell him your deepest, darkest secrets without fear of being judged harshly. Ask him if he’s actually Groot or just a government employee posing as him in order to profile people who confess their darkest secrets.
I wonder if it will work in different languages, the way Vin Diesel recorded Groot’s signature phrase for international releases. Here’s his Russian take:
The bot is the latest in a line of Groot-stuffs that people have been putting out, proving just how endearing the character is, regardless of his limited vocabulary. You can even translate entire web pages as if Groot as put them together. (Find it HERE.)
Remember, though, don’t text and drive. Put your spaceship on autopilot and then you can do all the texting you want.
