Local Chat Service Simulator for Bot Development

A computer program product comprising code embedded on computer-readable storage and configured so as when run on said user terminal to perform operations of:

• automatically detecting one or more bots stored locally on a user terminal of a testing user, being a human tester of the one or more bots;
• rendering a simulated communications client user interface simulating at least one user interface function of said communication client application, including at least:
• presenting one or more of the detected bots as one or more respective ones of a plurality of simulated communication contacts within the simulated communications client user interface, with which the testing user can select to communicate;
• and
• providing a simulated communications service backend simulating at least one backend function of said communication service, including at least:
• allowing the human tester to communicate with at least one of the one or more presented communication contacts, including at least one of said bots, so as to appear to be a published bot.

A user terminal for carrying out a method of testing one or more bots, each bot being for interacting with one or more human users via a communication service implemented over a network where the bot is to be published to a server and the one or more users access the communication service using a communication client application;

• the user terminal comprising:
• storage means for storing the one or more bots;
• a detecting module for detecting one or more of the bots stored on said storage means;
• a user interface simulating module for rendering a simulated communications client user interface simulating at least one user interface function of said communication client application, including at least:
• presenting one or more of the detected bots as one or more respective ones of a plurality of simulated communication contacts within the simulated communications client user interface, with which a testing user can select to communicate;
• and
• a backend simulating module for providing a simulated communications service backend simulating at least one backend function of said communication service, including at least:
• allowing the human tester to communicate with at least one of the one or more presented communication contacts, including at least one of said bots, so as to appear to be a published bot.