How to show the Bot is thinking and working on a response.

[summzhan]

Describe the bug
I have wired up a basic bot with Azure OpenAI, and while the AI model thinks, I would like to show that it is working on it with a "..." similar to what happens when real people are typing a message.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to '...'
2. Click on '....'
3. Scroll down to '....'
4. See error

Expected behavior
A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

VS Code Extension Information (please complete the following information):

• OS: [e.g. iOS]
• Version [e.g. 22]

CLI Information (please complete the following information):

• OS: [e.g. iOS8.1]
• Version [e.g. 22]

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

[a1exwang]

Could you please clarify a few questions?

• What SDK are you using to implement the bot? teams-ai or botbuilder? If you created the project from the AI Chat Bot or AI Assistant Bot template, it uses teams-ai SDK.

  • If you are using teams-ai SDK, typing indicator will automatically be sent when bot receives message from user.

  • If you are using botbuilder SDK, you can send activity with type typing. For example, for JavaScript SDK context.sendActivity({type: "typing"})
    According to this doc:

    Typing activities are intended to persist within UIs for three seconds.

    If you want to display typing indicator for more than three seconds, you need to send typing activity again 3 seconds after you send the first typing activity.

• What teams version are you using? new Teams or old Teams?
  • If you are using new Teams, typing indicator doesn't work for now. You can follow this bug the track the latest information: Typing Indicator not showing in New Teams microsoft/BotFramework-Composer#9679
  • If you are using old Teams, from our testing, typing indicator doesn't work either. Opened upstream issue here: Typing indicator doesn't work for old Teams microsoft/BotFramework-Composer#9700

[drewelewis]

@a1exwang, we are using the teams toolkit for VScode https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=TeamsDevApp.ms-teams-vscode-extension

[a1exwang]

Hi @drewelewis, there's some updates from upstream.

1. About typing indicator implementation

   • If you are using teams-ai SDK, typing indicator will automatically be sent when bot receives message from user. This is the same as what I said before.
   • But if you use botbuilder SDK, while directly sending the typing activity works, the recommended way is using ShowTypingMiddleware (Documentation), which allows you to control the delay (how long it waits before sending the indicator) and period (how long it sends the indicator for):

     const adapter = new CloudAdapter(botFrameworkAuthentication);
     
     [ ... ]
     
     adapter.use(new ShowTypingMiddleware(500, 1000));
     

2. About typing indicator not working on Teams:

   • From upstream issue

     Due to a Teams outage last week, the typing indicator was disabled for both classic as well as the new Teams apps. The typing indicator is slowly being reenabled across different groups and regions. I do not have a specific ETA on when it will be reenabled for you.