Ten years of building together.

First, a bot from a Google Table

As the founder recalls, the first bot was built from a Google Table. Looking back in 2020, the channel remembered those early days: no BJS yet, and long polling to receive messages.

The Store lists DemoFromTableBot as entry #1 and describes it as a bot created from a Google Table.

A Pokémon Go helper

PokemonGoHelpBot belongs to the early story too. Store entry #2 describes a Pokémon information database with more than 300 commands.

The exact creation dates of these early bots are unknown; their 2018 Store dates describe the listings.

BB reaches the browser

The announcement was one line long: Bots.Business was now available on the web.

Libraries on GitHub, bots in the Store

BB put its library repository on GitHub in June. A July invitation asked builders to sell their bots through the Store; later that month, the channel showed a workflow for editing bot sources in VS Code and deploying with Git.

BB.Cloud enters preAlpha

July brought a preAlpha release of BB.Cloud for running bots in a dedicated cloud. Lists followed in November.

195,000 bots created

BB’s March 2021 update reported 195,000 bots created and 11,000 active over the past month.

Web Apps get a demo

Web Apps got their own help article in June. In July, BBWebAppBot arrived as a sample bot.

$200 for work on the tools

The first Community Work project opened with a $200 budget for the VS Code extension. A month later, a release added bot creation, Store installs and drag-and-drop, and thanked a community contributor for development help.

SmartBot separates words from code

BBDemoTaskBot reached the Store with SmartBot architecture. Its logic was separate from its content, so translating the bot meant changing a language file.

BB connects with AdHub

BB announced its AdHub.plus integration with advertising broadcasts already active. Instant broadcasts and statistics were still on the to-do list.

Nineteen more languages

The app added 19 interface languages, from French and Japanese to Thai and Czech. Translation had community roots too: in 2019, BB had thanked a contributor for completing the Russian help translation.

Contest bots enter the Store

February brought two SmartBot contest winners to the Store: a trivia bot and an opinion-reward bot. In May, the Around BB video contest awarded four creators joint second place.

Two BB users join the team

On consecutive days, BB welcomed two users into its team. One had refreshed the API documentation; the other contributed BBDemoGiftBot, a demo for Telegram gifts and Stars payments.

The first MetaL season begins

The first MetaL Trust season turned a previously internal score into a public competition. Season 1: Hackathon offered cash prizes to the top ten participants.

Mel introduces herself

Mel introduced herself in a video caption: “Hi. I'm Mel.”

Bots.Business turns ten

Bots.Business turned ten on 7 May. The birthday post also reported the end of MetaL Season 2 and $500 sent in rewards. Later that day, the team invited users into an early beta of the new app.

The Nails logo becomes the avatar

The Nails concept won the community vote in March. On 31 May, it became the channel’s avatar.

The rebuilt Help Center

The rebuilt Help Center laid out three learning paths, from a first bot and menu to HTTP, webhooks and Mini Apps. Mel’s tips joined new mobile screenshots, practical BJS examples and step-by-step troubleshooting.

MetaL Builders gets its own presentation

Bots.Business introduced MetaL Builders in a short video: a website bringing together the seasons, community projects, people and shared history.

Watch the presentation48 seconds · Bots.Business