Changelog

The world is changing fast, and we're excited to be part of it! With OpenAI's new model, GPT-4o, you can now use PlugBear for faster and more powerful AI.

Even better, you can use your Google Drive as a knowledge base. This means you can keep your information updated without needing to upload new files.

Enjoy the future of AI with PlugBear!

Dynamic Knowledge Source with Google Drive

Keeping your Q&A bot's answers current just got easier. Say goodbye to manually updating your knowledge sources.

With our new Google Drive sync, your OpenAI Assistant can now automatically keep its file search aligned with your chosen Google Docs. This means your assistant will always draw from the latest information in your documents, without the need for repeated file uploads.

You can learn more about Google Drive sync here.

GPT-4o Support

You can now use OpenAI's new model GPT-4o using PlugBear! GPT-4o is 2x faster, half the price, and has 5x higher rate limits compared to GPT-4 Turbo. It also better handles non-English languages and uses a more efficient tokenizer.

To use GPT-4o, simply visit your LLM apps, click the edit button, and switch the model to GPT-4o.

Other Changes

• Bump up bookmarklet: We have upgraded our bookmarklet to version 3.1, which includes a critical fix for an issue where imports were failing in certain accounts due to recent updates to GPTs.
• OpenAPI Add-on: We have added support for authentication based on query strings and fixed a bug related to tool argument parsing.

In closing, We sincerely thank everyone who supported PlugBear by upvoting us on Product Hunt last week. Your engagement is invaluable to us, and we're grateful for your enthusiasm and feedback as we continue to improve. Thank you for being part of our journey!

Image Interpretation #slack

PlugBear now recognizes images on Slack! Just send over an image with what you need to be interpreted or extracted in the chat. You can use this feature for the following purposes:

For Marketing Teams

• Creative image compliance check bot
• Creative image feedback bot to enhance campaign performance

For Product Teams

• UI Design review bot

For Customer Service Teams

• Customer support bot that responds to inquiries with images

Update your OpenAI Assistant directly in PlugBear

Updating your OpenAI Assistant's instructions and files is now simpler. Make your changes directly in PlugBear, and they'll automatically synchronize with the OpenAI platform—no need to manage your LLM apps elsewhere.

Other Changes

• Thread Context Support in Slack Group DM: PlugBear is now able to understand and respond to thread context in Group DM channels the same way it does in public channels.

In closing, our Slack app is now officially approved and listed in the Slack App Directory! A big thank you to our current customers for your early trust and support. This update doesn't impact those who have already installed our app, but it's a step forward we wanted to celebrate with you!

OpenAI Assistants v2 Support

OpenAI Assistants in PlugBear now operate on v2. All existing LLM apps based on Assistants v1 have been automatically upgraded to v2. The new version allows you to upload up to 10,000 files, in contrast to the previous limit of 20, providing your assistants with more context. Be aware that your OpenAI bill will be charged based on the size of the uploaded files at a rate of $0.10/GB/day.

Annotation Support in Slack

Our latest update introduces annotation capabilities for responses generated by the LLM App within Slack. This promotes transparency by allowing users to easily reference and verify the original source or document related to the app's responses.

Use Case Spotlight: Building Your SQL Assistant

Imagine having an AI at your fingertips that crafts SQL queries based on your specific database schema. This SQL Assistant not only generates the queries for analyzing your data but collaborates with you to refine and perfect them, making your analytics tasks more efficient and effective. Interested in creating your own SQL Assistant? Dive deeper here!

Other Changes

• When you add the PlugBear bot to a channel you will receive a helpful welcome message guiding your next steps.
• Bug fix: Resolved ephemeral response setting issue for Slack connection

Custom message template

Introducing Custom Message Templates!
Want to enhance the context of your messages sent to LLM? We've got you covered with our latest feature. Now, you can specify who sent the message or which thread you're addressing. Simply head to the Connection Edit page and navigate to the Preferences tab to create your personalized message template. Tailor your messages to your liking and make every interaction count! Here is an example: Type like this. Then ask, "Tell me my user id," and you'll receive your user ID!

Simplifying LLM App Creation

This week, We've made enhancements to streamline the creation of LLM Apps. Here’s what’s changed:

• Ready-to-Use Templates: To help you get started immediately, we've introduced a range of pre-built templates. These templates are designed to cover various common use cases, enabling you to quickly deploy customized AI solutions without starting from scratch.
• Simplified App Form: We've redesigned the App creation form, making it more intuitive and user-friendly.

Streaming Answers

Great news! 🎉 If you're using OpenAI Assistants, you no longer have to wait until the entire answer is generated. PlugBear now streams the answers, allowing you to view them as they're being generated.

Enjoy your quicker AI responses!

Use Cases

Daily News Summarizer

Create a personalized bot that summarizes daily news on your chosen topics, delivering concise and relevant updates directly to your communication channels like Slack or Microsoft Teams. Check our blog post to learn more!

Answering Questions Before You Do

You can create a bot for Slack that can answer questions on your behalf. People can still ask questions the same way they always have – by mentioning you or your team.

By allowing a bot to handle routine questions, your team members can focus on the important work that truly matters, enabling you to achieve more.

Beta Support for Anthropic Claude 3

The early March release of Claude 3 was significant, and many customers have expressed interest in trying it. Now, you can head over to PlugBear and create your Claude 3 app to start testing right away.

While the Opus model is the most sophisticated model, be mindful of its higher cost. Currently, PlugBear’s integration with Claude 3 is focused on text generation(with vision support planned for the future). We invite everyone interested in Claude 3 to dive in, experiment, and please share your feedback with us.

Use cases

Customizable Customer Support AI Agent

Generative AI is changing the game for customer support, offering immediate access to a company's internal knowledge base. Imagine AI assistants that summarize inquiries, draft suggested answers, possess the knowledge to resolve issues, and offer much more!

Do you want your AI living in Zendesk or HubSpot? Check this blog post for more details.

Custom AI for Customer Research

Are you looking to quickly research and qualify your leads? With PlugBear, you can build an AI to do just that. Enable your LLM applications to automatically share summaries of customer interactions—whether they're signing up for your service or asking questions through HubSpot. Click here to discover more.

Other Changes

• Enhanced MS Teams Integration: Addressing user feedback, we've streamlined the integration process with MS Teams to reduce potential difficulties.
• Option to Exclude PlugBear Links in Error Messages: This update eliminates PlugBear-directed error description links, optimizing the experience for users handling customer interactions via PlugBear.

Zendesk Integration: Enhance Your Customer Support Experience!

We’re excited to announce a new channel in this update: Zendesk! PlugBear now supports customer service agents to work faster and more efficiently than ever before.

How does it work?

When a ticket is created, PlugBear understands its context and responds with an internal note that only the agents can see.

Use cases

Automated Email Drafts: Automatically generates email drafts based on Zendesk tickets, tailored to the customer's inquiry. This saves CS agents valuable time and enhances customer interaction quality.

Inquiry Resolution Guide: Upon ticket creation, PlugBear utilizes the knowledge base to perform preliminary investigations, offering insights and potential solutions to agents. This approach enables agents to quickly identify potential resolutions and enhance their response to customer inquiries.

Other Changes

• Refined Task Status Indicators in HubSpot: PlugBear now provides more apparent status updates for tasks within HubSpot, detailing reasons for any delays or errors. In request failures or delays, users can quickly identify the precise cause and the corrective actions required.
• Usability Improvements: We've made a few improvements to enhance user experience, including adding a search function for selecting LLM Apps.

Microsoft Teams Integration Now Available 🎉

We are pleased to announce that Microsoft Teams is now available. Our application has successfully passed the Microsoft App Verification process and is integrated with Microsoft Teams as a beta feature. We invite you to explore this new functionality and welcome your feedback!

Use cases

The Microsoft Teams integration accommodates the majority of use cases that Slack supports. For further details, please refer to our usecase docs. Here is one of the use cases, a proof-of-concept:

Trigger By Multiple Keywords #slack

Now, there's no need to create new connections for each keyword. You can configure a single connection to recognize multiple keywords, simplifying your setup.

For instance, you can trigger the Benefits Q&A bot with questions containing keywords such as "health benefits", "medical coverage" or "wellness programs".

HubSpot Integration Now Available 🎉

We're thrilled to unveil our new HubSpot app integration with PlugBear, offering a streamlined approach to enhance ticket resolution speed and agent productivity. This integration allows for seamless ticket management within HubSpot, simplifying the workflow for customer service teams.

Use cases

Automated Ticket Investigation: Upon ticket creation, PlugBear leverages its knowledge base to conduct preliminary investigations, offering insights and potential solutions to agents.

Draft Response Generation: PlugBear can automatically generate a personalized email draft whenever a ticket is created. This enables your team to greatly streamline the email response process and improve the customer experience overall.

We are eager to support a wider range of use cases within HubSpot. If you have any specific use cases or ideas you'd like to see implemented, please feel free to share them with us!

Custom App Icons (beta)

You can now customize app icons! To do so, visit the Connections page and select a connection. Then, open the Preferences tab to begin customizing icons. This beta feature will be available for all plans until its official release. (Disclaimer: This feature only customizes icons of generated messages. Stay tuned for more advanced customization options!)

This week, we're thrilled to introduce significant updates to PlugBear, enhancing your experience with new features and improved functionalities. Here's what's new:

Call External API From OpenAI Assistant, Using Open API

We've enhanced our OpenAI Assistants app to support OpenAPI, a significant improvement that simplifies and strengthens the process of connecting OpenAI Assistants with external APIs. It enables your Assistants to interact more effectively with the external world.

For instance, you can extract information from user queries and save them into Airtable, activate Zapier Actions for extended functionalities, and more! The range of possibilities is now even wider.

Our integration guide provides detailed setup instructions. Stay tuned for our upcoming guide on specific use cases.

OpenAI Assistants Request History

Nobody likes seeing "Oops" messages, especially when figuring out why they're happening is challenging. We're excited to tell you that you can now see your OpenAI Assistants' past requests on the connections page. Just click on a connection on the Connections page or use the link in the error message to see the information.

Connection Preferences

Customize your connection preferences to suit your needs! For instance, you can opt to receive generated answers through an ephemeral message that only you can see. Additionally, you can choose to use a single message under a thread to prevent interference or optimize costs. You can find these preferences on your connection page. More options are coming soon, so stay tuned!

Conditional Trigger by User or Bot 🤖 #slack

This new feature automatically triggers responses based on messages from specific users or bots within Slack. So, you can say goodbye to the hassle of repeatedly mentioning @PlugBear.

Use Cases

On-call Assistant: Set up an automatic trigger for the messages by an incident alert bot to propose initial response strategies when an outage alert is issued.

CS Assistant: Configure triggers for customer service notification bots, such as Zendesk, to present response manuals to customer service representatives when a ticket is created.

How to Setup?

You can find the option under the "Triggers" section on the Connection editing page.

Other Changes

• UI Improvements: We've improved the Connection page more user-friendly and intuitive
• Bug fix: Resolved a bug where unintended Connections were selected for keyword triggers.

Support Conditional Trigger by Emoji 🐥 #slack

Looking for a simpler way to interact with PlugBear? Say hello to our emoji-trigger! 🎉 Now, with just an emoji, you can invoke PlugBear to respond to individual messages within your conversations. This means that PlugBear will act based on the specific message you've marked with an emoji. Here's a simple use case where a customer support agent swiftly gets assistance on a customer query with a simple emoji.

Other Changes

• Enhanced Messaging for Slack: We’ve improved how long messages are handled in Slack. Now, if a message from LLM is too lengthy, you'll see a "See more" button to expand the content fully. No more cut-offs!
• Slack Attachment Handling: With the recent introduction of thread-level file upload and knowledge retrieval, we've now stabilized file handling and ironed out the edge cases. It’s still early days for this feature, so we welcome all your feedback to make it even better.

Update on Microsoft Teams Integration

We know many of you are eagerly awaiting the integration with Microsoft Teams. We appreciate your patience! We’re working closely with Microsoft and just waiting on the final nod from them, so stay tuned!

PlugBear launches Conditional Triggers, Attachments Support, and new use cases.

Attachments Support in PlugBear #slack 🎉

PlugBear now allows the processing of uploaded files. Easily upload documents in PDF, docx, or plain text formats and interact with your LLM apps to analyze the content. Ask your LLM apps to process and respond to queries related to the uploaded files.

Use Case: Document Review Bot

Reviewing documents to extract crucial information can be a daunting task, requiring significant time and effort. Visit Document Review Bot to learn more about how to build the LLM application.

Conditional Triggers for LLM Apps #slack

Your LLM apps can now be set to interact with messages based on defined conditions, not just when @PlugBear is mentioned. This enables a more natural experience in chats where the LLM apps can provide input whenever a message contains a specific keyword.

For example:

• When a message contains "error reported," the app can explain the error and suggest a solution.
• When a message contains "new customer," the app can respond with the customer information.

More Upcoming Trigger Conditions

We are diversifying trigger conditions to support a wider range of use cases. Soon, you will be able to call the app under a variety of conditions as follows:

• Emoji-based trigger: Attach an emoji to a message to trigger the app.
• Scheduled trigger: Schedule the app to run at a specific time.

Today, we're thrilled to unveil the first in our series of advanced chat triggers. With these new features, we aim to empower you to create even more innovative and efficient workflows.

Thread Auto-Reply

Introducing the Thread Auto-Reply trigger, designed to streamline your conversational experience effortlessly. Engage with your selected LLM App in a thread as you would with ChatGPT, without needing to mention @PlugBear. This feature can be set per app connection, paving the way for smoother interactions.

Stay tuned for upcoming automatic trigger conditions, including emoji (😄) reaction triggers and responses triggered by predefined criteria such as keywords or user mentions.

Other changes

We've resolved an issue where chats could intermittently become unresponsive due to connectivity problems between PlugBear and the OpenAI Assistants API, which sometimes led to hangs in the request. This fix significantly enhances the reliability of chat responses.

Upcoming Use Cases

We are developing features to support more use cases, including:

• Automatic Translator: It will translate every message in a channel into other languages.
• Daily Digest: It will summarize daily updates made the day before.

...and more! Stay tuned.

Last Limited-Time Offer 🎁

It’s my bad. Last week, we didn’t share that the offer ends today.

Since the launch of PlugBear this month, we have received an overwhelming number of subscriptions from users. We are incredibly grateful for your support. Thank you!

As a token of our gratitude, we have decided to extend the limited-time offer for one more week. Make sure not to miss this opportunity! The offer will remain valid until next Wednesday.

Web Browsing (beta)

Your OpenAI Assistant can now browse the web! 🔍🌐 We are thrilled to announce that your OpenAI Assistants have the ability to access a web browser, allowing them to utilize vast amounts of information. With this new capability, you can create even more advanced Assistants, like the Sales Copy Generator, which can leverage prospects' online search results. Check out Web Browsing for more details.

Use Case: Sales Copy Generator

Enhance your outreach with a customized sales copy generator. Personalized messages grab attention, but writing each one is slow. With OpenAI and PlugBear, you can create your Sales Copy Generator in under an hour.

PlugBear Initiates SOC2 Compliance with Vanta 🔒

PlugBear is proud to announce the start of our journey to SOC2 compliance, partnering with the security and compliance leader, Vanta. This initiative underscores our unwavering commitment to maintaining the highest standards of data security and privacy for our users. Stay tuned for updates as we reinforce our promise to deliver a secure and trustworthy platform. Check our Trust Center to learn more!

Loading Indicators

PlugBear now sends a status message right after accepting your requests. This update provides continuous status updates to keep you informed about the operational status of the app or any retry efforts.

Editing Connections

Finally, you can now edit connections! We have made connections editable before adding more controls. Enjoy the ability to create and edit connections between channels and LLM apps.

Use Case: A Q&A Bot (Using Notion)

We have outlined the process of creating your Q&A bot using Notion pages. Additionally, you can create and import the Q&A bot using OpenAI GPTs. Take a look at the Building a Q&A Bot guide to build custom Q&A bots tailored to your specific requirements.

More Upcoming Channels

Microsoft Teams integration is coming soon! (We are waiting for Microsoft's review.)

In addition, we are prioritizing services to support integration. Please take a moment to complete our 1-minute survey to help us prioritize the most critical services for shipping!

Slash Command to call your app

Elevate your Slack experience! The new slash command /plugbear ask YOUR QUESTION simplifies interactions with the LLM app—making it fast, straightforward, and efficient.

Commitment to Security

Our dedication to robust security is unwavering. Currently undergoing SOC2 Type 2 compliance auditing, we are committed to ensuring that our security infrastructure adheres to the highest industry standards.

Chat System Enhancements

We have upgraded our messaging system to provide a more efficient handling of chat requests. While we acknowledge that some users may have experienced temporary delays, we are dedicated to continuously improving the system for a seamless experience. We appreciate your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience.

Upcoming Microsoft Teams Integration

Exciting news! The integration with Microsoft Teams is on the horizon. Our application is in the review process, and we are anticipating approval shortly.

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Don't miss our latest resource - the Building Q&A bot use case guide, offering insights on leveraging PlugBear for enhanced Q&A interactions in your organization.

PlugBear now supports OpenAI GPTs conversion, listing apps in channels, and connecting LLM apps to private Slack channels.

OpenAI GPTs Integration

We have launched a new feature that allows users to import OpenAI GPTs and convert them into OpenAI Assistants. This enhances PlugBear's functionality by enabling integration with the latest OpenAI GPTs.

Private Channel Support

In response to user requests, PlugBear has expanded its capabilities to include support for private Slack channels. You can now connect your preferred LLM app to private channels, ensuring that sensitive conversations remain exclusive while still benefitting from PlugBear's chat-based tool integration.

Listing Connected Apps

Users can now easily manage their apps connected to channels on Slack with the new /plugbear list apps command. This command provides a quick overview of which apps are connected to which channels, streamlining channel app management.

Use Case: Thread Summarizer

Have you ever felt tired of reading a long thread? Let AI summarize the conversation for you. You can build a bot for Slack in just 5 minutes by following this guide: Building a Bot for Summarizing Threads.

Happy New Year, PlugBear users! We are excited to announce the official launch of PlugBear!

PlugBear Docs

We have published a product documentation site that provides a usage guide and introduces use cases. Please refer to the documentation at docs.plugbear.io.

Auto App Selection

Managing multiple apps and their Slack channels can be cumbersome. With the Auto App Selection option, you no longer need to assign specific channels to an app to avoid receiving multiple answers. Turn on this option and get the most relevant app's answer.

Retrying on Rate Limit

We have seen you encountered error messages caused by OpenAI's rate limit. To address this, we will handle queueing and retrying requests automatically.

Pricing

The PlugBear team has extensively discussed and decided on the best values and pricing options for our users. Today, we are finally publishing our pricing model, which will allow us to deliver more features and value continually.

You can find the supported features and pricing details on the Pricing page.

Early-Bird Discount 🎁

To show our appreciation for your support, we are offering a 50% discount until the end of January 2024. Claim your discount by upgrading your plan on the Billing page.

We cannot express our gratitude and love to you enough. We promise to continue delivering even more value to you.

Enhanced Customization for LLM Apps

We've introduced a description field to LLM apps, which will become even more useful with our upcoming release. Additionally, you can now easily modify existing configurations after creation, simplifying the process of managing your apps.

Improved Error Log Accessibility

Building on our invocation history page, we've increased the accessibility of error logs. When an LLM app-related error, such as an OpenAI rate limit issue, is detected, you'll be notified with a link to the invocation details directly in your Slack or Discord app.

Official Launch Countdown

With just one week to go until the official launch of PlugBear, we're gearing up to unveil new features and enhancements that will enhance your PlugBear experience.

As we bid farewell to 2023, we're eagerly anticipating the new updates and features coming in 2024. Stay tuned for a more advanced PlugBear experience in the year ahead!

PlugBear Python SDK Released

We're pleased to introduce PlugBear Python SDK. This new addition simplifies the integration of custom LLM apps with PlugBear. Now, you can easily integrate your own AI toolkit, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and many others, into Slack or Discord.

Learn how to use the SDK in our guide: Integrate Your Custom LLM App with PlugBear.

Enhanced Troubleshooting with Invocation History

Understanding error messages from your PlugBear bot just got easier! We've introduced a feature that allows you to view your LLM app’s recent invocation history. Now, you can effectively troubleshoot error responses from LLM apps. Access this feature from the "Connections" detail page.

Other Changes

• We've enhanced the stability of the Slack workspace installation process.

LangServe Integration

LangServe integration is now available on PlugBear. You can seamlessly connect your LangChain app, served by LangServe, to PlugBear, unlocking a host of new capabilities.

Discover more about this integration in our guide: Integrate Your Custom LangChain Apps with Slack through PlugBear.

Enhanced Slack Thread Context

PlugBear has improved its context awareness within Slack. It now tracks the entire conversation threads — not just the messages that directly mention PlugBear. This results in more relevant and coherent follow-up responses in ongoing discussions.

Other Changes

• Discord integration now supports the calling of API functions, a feature previously exclusive to Slack.
• We've resolved an issue with listing channels in Slack workspaces that have a large number of channels.

API Function Calling

PlugBear now supports calling API functions. This feature allows you to call API functions from your LLM app, enabling you to build more complex apps.

Learn more about this feature in the How to Call APIs using OpenAI Assistant guide.

Slack Direct Messages

You can ask PlugBear by sending a direct message to it. This is useful for asking questions privately.

Other Changes

• Improved speed
• Added a guide document on converting converting GPTs to Assistant

PlugBear was launched on Product Hunt last Thursday and achieved #5 Dev Tool of the Week! 🎉 We sincerely appreciate your support and are thrilled to share our values with you.

Discord integration

Responding to numerous requests, PlugBear now offers integration with Discord. This feature is particularly beneficial for organizations, especially open-source projects, allowing them to incorporate LLM apps into their community. We are excited to support the open-source community through this integration!

#channel selection

You now have the option to select specific channels on Slack and Discord for your LLM app. This flexibility facilitates the use of various apps within a single organization. For instance, you can assign an onboarding Q&A chatbot to the #people-team channel while a data catalog bot operates in the #data-team channel.

We hope you enjoy the versatility of using multiple LLM apps in your workspace 😄