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2019 · Bachelor thesis, HEIA-FR

Libertchat: La Liberté's chatbot in a mobile app

My Bachelor thesis: a Flutter app that puts the chatbot of the Swiss daily La Liberté in its readers' pockets, articles and notifications included.

A hand holding a phone showing a conversation with La Liberté's bot.

My Bachelor thesis at the School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg (HEIA-FR), in 2019. The goal: a cross-platform mobile app integrating a chatbot for La Liberté, the Fribourg daily newspaper.

The starting point

The chatbot itself was being developed by the iCoSys institute at HEIA-FR. My work was not about the bot but about integrating it: an app that lets readers talk to it and read the articles it suggests.

What the app does

  • Pick a bot. On launch, the app, named DjeBots, offers several bots: La Liberté’s and Gruyère Énergie’s. Each keeps its own colours; the chat screen stays the same.
  • Chat. Type a message, or tap a shortcut: Top stories, Switzerland, Sport, Economy, International. The bot answers with articles to swipe through.
  • Read. Articles open inside the app. Readers can rate them and move on to similar ones.
  • Get notified. Personalised notifications suggest new articles based on how you use the chatbot and on the topics picked in the settings: sport, mountains, Fribourg-Gottéron, politics and some twenty more.

Technologies

Flutter and Dart, for a single codebase on iOS and Android. Firebase on the server side: Cloud Functions for the logic, Firestore for the data.

VideoThe app in action.
DjeBots splash screen and “Choose a bot” screen with La Liberté and Gruyère Énergie
On launch, you pick a bot: La Liberté or Gruyère Énergie. One app, several bots, each in its own colours.
Conversations with both bots, in La Liberté's and Gruyère Énergie's colours
Both bots side by side: the same chat screen, two identities.
Conversation with La Liberté's bot and the “Bot settings” screen
Left: the bot answers with articles to swipe through; shortcuts (Top stories, Switzerland, Sport…) save typing. Right: settings for personalised notifications and topics to follow.
An open article with its star rating and similar articles
Articles open inside the app; readers can rate them and move on to similar ones.
“These articles might interest you” notification sent by La Liberté
A notification suggests articles based on what you read and asked the bot.