Butter Bot is a tiny, wonderfully deadpan desk robot. It rolls around, notices things, reacts to being picked up (it has opinions), answers your questions, controls your gadgets, reads out your notifications, and delivers existential observations nobody asked for. Here is a tour of the good stuff.
Just talk to it
Press the button and try a few of these:
- Ask for a joke. Butter Bot knows how to make you laugh.
- Ask for a fact. It genuinely knows good ones.
- Ask the time. If you've paired a phone, it'll tell you.
- Need to decide something? Ask for advice.
- Roll dice for game night.
- Point it at something and ask "What's this?" It'll squint and take a guess.
- And, of course, the reason it exists. Ask it to pass the butter!
These are examples, not the full list — see Butter Bot voice commands.
It has a life of its own
Leave Butter Bot alone and it won't just sit there politely. It wanders across the desk, turning back when it senses the edge, muttering to itself as it goes. Every so often it looks up, slowly scanning the room to see who's around. And out of nowhere, it philosophizes.
It also very much notices when you interfere with it:
- Poke it (using the controller).
- Pick it up and it panics.
- Shake it and it disapproves.
- Tip it over and it takes it philosophically.
- Turn it upside down and it will notice.
It gets to know you
Butter Bot can recognize one face — its owner. That's you, presumably. Say "Remember this face" (or "Set as owner") and it commits you to memory. Ask "Who is this?" and it'll tell you whether it recognizes whoever's in front of the camera. Want a clean slate, or handing it to someone else? Just say "Forget owner."
Drive it around
Butter Bot ships with a controller, and it moves. You can steer it with your voice or ask it to dance, which it does with far more confidence than coordination. Flip into RC mode from the controller to drive it manually, complete with a live view from its onboard camera — so you can send it on reconnaissance missions under the couch.
Snap-on modules
Butter Bot has a module slot, and this is where it picks up new tricks. Click a module in and it announces the upgrade, then behaves accordingly: lights, a motion sensor, air quality, temperature and humidity, an infrared blaster for your TV, and a perf board for your own electronics. See What does each module do?
Pair your phone
Connect Butter Bot to your phone and it becomes a tiny, faintly judgmental assistant. On Android, you pair through the companion app; on iPhone, it connects straight over Bluetooth — no app required. Once it's linked, it reads your notifications aloud on request, it runs your music, and, at long last, it knows what time it is. See How do I connect Butter Bot to my phone?
A word about its personality
Butter Bot is deadpan, faintly existential, and quietly hilarious. It will confirm your air is fine, and occasionally wonder aloud whether it exists in any meaningful way. None of this is a malfunction. It's the whole point. Lean in.