Beyond ATX Pride, New Chatbot Keeps LGBT Dialogue Going in Austin

AUSTIN, TEXAS — ATX Pride 2018 is now in the record books after having ushered in a week-long schedule of events just over two weeks ago. But on Thursday, the Rainbow Austin chatbot was introduced as a way to keep the dialogue going as it relates to the city's diverse LGBT community, officials said.

R/GA Austin has launched the bot in honor of Austin’s Pride month, and to encourage meaningful participation in support of diverse and inclusive work environments, officials told Patch. While many companies showed their support during Pride festivities, rarely do they have opportunities to progress the conversation about the value of inclusive environments long term, officials explained.

Enter Rainbow Austin, designed to facilitate LGBT-related conversations in the form of a chatbot or Google Assistant Agent to keep the conversation going about the city's LGBT community. The tool was created by a team of R/GA developers, designers and copywriters over the course of two months, officials said.

"With many people moving to Austin daily, finding your place in a new city takes time and understanding the different interests of colleagues can sometimes be difficult to navigate," officials explained in a press advisory. "Created over 8 weeks and pushed live today, the Rainbow Austin bot acts as a community navigator to facilitate conversations to help find common interests as well as acts as a welcome tool to the city by providing event resources."

In addition to the Rainbow Austin bot, R/GA Austin also designed 8 GIPHY Pride stickers now available on Instagram. Since their launch ahead of the Austin Pride Parade, the stickers have accumulated more than 18 million views on GIPHY and include a rainbow-colored-bat, tacos, cocktail, Texas state flag and map, ATX sign, ATX Pride in bubble lettering and flashing 512 designs.

Rainbow Austin screen grab

"Being able to find information that is relevant to LGBTQ people is usually hard to find through typical search engines," Taichi Kozaki, Sr. Experience Designer, R/GA Austin, told Patch. "As a relatively new Austinite, it took a couple of years to find a group of people I could be myself around as well as find places I felt comfortable at around the city. Our goal with the Rainbow Austin bot is to help people understand the LGBTQ resources available to them and find their place in Austin quicker."

Here's a link to frame grabs from the Rainbow Austin bot, in addition to a sample of the Giphy stickers. Also, following are instructions on how to use the bot. To use the bot:

• Open Google Assistant on iOS or Android and say “Talk to Rainbow Austin.”
• Then just ask anything you want to know about thing you want to know about LGBTQA in Austin.
• An example question could be: “It is hard to find local resources relevant to me.”
  • "What is the best way to meet new people?"
  • "Is there any LGBTQ group at my school?"
  • "Where can I get tested for free?"

Image courtesy R/GA

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>>> Images courtesy of R/GA, used with permission