This bot will help you ditch annoying texters

A bot to get rid of annoying texters. The makers of the Burner app are introducing a new feature called ghost bot. It aims to solve the problem of annoying and unwanted text messages. Here's how it works. First, you'll have to download the Burner app. Burner gives you a disposable phone number. Then you head over to the Ghostbot website and register your phone. Add whatever contacts you know longer want to chat with. When one of those contacts tries to text your burner line, Ghostbot will reply. The app makers say Ghostbot can determine when a test is a let's do something invitation, a booty call, a pick up line, a proclamation, or a lewd comment, among others. So, of course, we tested it out. We followed burner's instructions, and waited? And ghost bot didn't respond to several texts until about an hour. The company says ghost bot will reply at random intervals. The folks at the Burner app also told me that the delay for ghost bot's response is variable up to three hours. Currently the reason is to simulate someone who wasn't being super responsive. Thankfully we're able to test out burner's test line which responds immediately. The ap did a decent job deflecting messages and shutting things down. For example texting Netflix & chill, a phrase I've never texted before, received maybe another time I'm down with the flu. I will say, a conversation with Ghostbot is pretty irritating. Responses weren't exactly consistent. The bot will say things like it is swamped, and it has the flu. And it's out of town. When I asked about the inconsistencies, it said no one cares what you think. Game, set, and match, to Ghostbot. That's it for this tech news update, I'm [UNKNOWN], and you can stay on top of the biggest stories at Cnet.com/update.