Sideloading VS Custom Bot in Microsoft Teams - ms-office

Im trying to make a custom bot in MS Teams.
My Admin has not yet enabled "Sideloading", but I have the option to "Create a Custom Bot", yet I cannot find any information between the differences of these 2 options?
Has the "Custom Bot" replaced sideloading? In which case, how can i connect my bot to my team? Its hosted on azure, but it kept saying "Sorry, there was a problem encountered with your request", when I had it set up using the Custom Bot.
The bot works perfectly, using both the emulator and the bot framework.

A custom bot is not a Bot Framework bot - it's really designed as a simple way to send information from Teams to an external application (Slack calls them "Outgoing Webhooks"). It's not designed for real bot conversations in the Bot Framework sense. The feature (and its limitations) are documented in detail here.
You can't use bots in a team without sideloading - that's what sideloading is for. When you sideload an app that contains a bot - more info here - it registers additional information needed for a bot to work in a team, as well as a record of the consent for that bot to operate in a team.

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Talk to an Azure Cognitive services bot with a phone

I created an Azure bot with cognitive services, and enabled the direct speech client and skype channels.
I can talk to the bot using the Direct Speech Client application, but I would like to talk to it from my phone, via Skype. I mean place a call to it not text.
I know MS is deprecating the Skype and all its associated components but they are still available.
When I place a call to the bot i hear a MS Azure message saying "You cannot talk to this bot yet but we are working on it" Is there a way I can get it to work ?
I cannot find the documentation on Github either.
As said in the error message, they are working on it, so currently it is not available

Ms teams Mobile and Bot Framework: sending images

I have a solution that works on Identity and Auth, The solution runs a WhatsApp Bot that ask the user for images doing specific gestures as part of biometrics for authentication. That works great.
Then We are working with to create support for that bot in Microsoft Teams and other Channels using Azure Bot Service / Bot Framework , but We're facing troubles because the documentation explicitly says that file exchange between ms-teams bots and users is not supported on Mobile.
Do you know any workaround or OSS component that could remove this blocker?
Any ideas will be appreciated.
the docs Send and receive files with a bot:

Whatsapp as a channel with Microsoft Bot Framework using Clickatell

Working with a customer who wants to use Microsoft Bot Framework and "Whatsapp" as a channel. Though Whatsapp has released its public business API, it is still in limited public preview and Microsoft Bot Framework understandably doesn't yet support it. As an alternate, we are planning to use "Clickatell" for whatsapp integration, where Bot Framework would call the Clickatell APIs and enable integration with Whatsapp. Has anyone worked on this scenario and can throw some light on any challenges? such as how this custom channel would work and how security etc would be handled in the non-standard channel (Whatsapp)
Thanks
If I understand this correctly – Microsoft/Azure Bot will allow the business to implement AI based bots specific to their business to interact with users on various channels, WhatsApp being one. This can be done today, and will have no bearing on any roadmap items. This is how Clickatell Touch integrates today.
If there is an expectation to enable a bot within the WhatsApp application to make the interactions “rich” (like in FB messenger), then that will be a discussion with WhatsApp directly.

Can any one suggests some platform agnostic bot framework

I am looking for a platform agnostic framework or library that can give me a generalise schema for different responses coming from Messenger, Slack, Web chat, Skype etc. And, i can reply them with a single schema.
So, Any bot framework that have its own request and response schema.
Have you checked Microsoft Bot Framework? It's exactly what you are looking at.
The Microsoft Bot Framework provides just what you need to build and connect intelligent bots that interact naturally wherever your users are talking, from text/sms to Skype, Slack, Kik, Office 365 mail and other popular services.
The Bot Framework has a number of components including the Bot Connector, Bot Builder SDK, and the Bot Directory.
Resources
Microsoft Bot Framework Developer Portal
Documentation
Bot Builder SDK
Task-focused Samples
Azure Bot Service
Emulator

Can I use Skype Web SDK to build a IM Chat Bot for Skype for Business/Skype?

I need to be able to initiate a connection from the bot to a SfB user. The bot will be making the connection as a published Web App on Azure.
The bot can have its own SfB id and will message people from there.
If it can be achieved for Skype instead of SfB, I'd still like to know how I would go about implementing a solution for that.
The Bot term here is misleading me a bit, but from the scenario you mentioned, it sounds like a chat between a Web App using the Skype Web SDK and an SfB client. As long as the Web App is using a SfB creds, that should be possible.
You can't use SfB with bot framework right at the moment. But you can use skype instead. To create a bot which work with the skype please follow the below steps.
First register a new bot inside the bot framework. Click here. Keep in mind that you need Microsoft account for that.(outlook, live)
Then download bot application template from here. Save the zip file to your Visual Studio 2015 templates directory which is traditionally in “%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C#"
After that you can download bot emulator to check your bot from here
Add your AppId and AppSecret (You can find that from the bot registration dash board) inside web config file. Then run your application and check whether you get the same wording you send through the emulator.
If all are working you can connect it to the skype like this. First go to dashboard in web. Enable skype and there you can find few steps to follow. If you success with that steps you can see your bot inside your skype where you can communicate. *For publish to public crowd it takes time and your bot go through a quality process which handle by Microsoft.
FYI - Skype for Business was announced as a new channel today on Build 2017 :)

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