Grok Bot just got 3x faster and can read your X DMs. Here's how to use the update

What's trending: On October 16, the official Grok Bot account on X posted a batch of updates, and the one everybody grabbed was speed: "Computer tasks finish 3x sooner on average, and replies to everything else arrive in less than half the time." The same thread says voice calls are "faster, more reliable, and better at remembering past conversations," Grok Bot can now read X Chat, you can tag @bot in a post to start a task, its email supports plus aliases, and new connectors include Robinhood, Coinbase, Trello, PostHog, beehiiv, and eToro. There's also a fresh look with cleaner chat cards, a new typeface, and themes, and notifications now go only to the device you're using instead of buzzing every gadget you own. By Saturday the tech press had it too, with iPhone in Canada calling it a major update.

How it works: Think of it as the same assistant after a really good cup of coffee. The speed part is the easy one: computer tasks, the clicking and typing your Bot does on its own cloud computer, now finish about three times sooner on average. The rest are new doors you open yourself. For X Chat, SpaceXSI's docs say Bots can already read public X without signing in as you, but for your DMs you add the X plugin from Connect apps and sign in with X. Paul Vann, who works on SpaceXSI and the X API, posted that he'd had his Bot "reviewing new message requests all week" to stay on top of his inbox. For tagging, you reply to a post with @bot and an ask, @bot answers with a short confirmation, and your main Bot does the work in the Grok Bot app. The docs' own example: "@bot summarize this thread and send the key points to my Slack." For email, if your Bot has its own address at mail.grokbot.com, you can add a plus tag to it, and Sam Sokolin, who builds Grok Bot, says you can "set up routines that only trigger for mail to a specific alias."

The play: use the extra speed to hand over the chores you used to babysit. Let it sort your X message requests every morning and tell you which ones are real people worth answering. Tag @bot under a long thread or a how-to post and ask for the short version waiting in your chat. Give your online orders one email alias and your kid's school or club newsletters another, so each gets its own routine, like a mail sorter with labeled cubbies. And use voice calls in the car or on a walk now that the Bot is better at remembering what you told it last time. If you run a side gig, the same alias trick keeps customer email apart from receipts, but you don't need a business to get value out of this one.

How to run it: First, update the Grok Bot app and retry one task you gave up on for being slow, like comparing a price across three stores. Second, for DMs, open Connect apps, add X, sign in with X, then try: "Go through my X message requests, tell me who each one is from and what they want, and don't accept or answer anything without asking me." Third, to tag, connect your X account to your Grok account on grok.com under Settings, then Account, and make sure you have at least one Bot of your own. Reply to a post with @bot and a clear ask, wait for the short confirmation reply, then open the app for the result. Fourth, for email, ask your Bot to get its own address if it doesn't have one, then set up a routine like: "When mail arrives at [email protected], list the item, price, and delivery date and send it to me. Don't reply to anyone." Send one test email to the alias and one to the plain address, and check that only the right one sets it off. Fifth, start a voice call, tell your Bot one thing to remember, hang up, call back later, and ask about it.

Watch out for: tagged requests start work automatically and use your Grok Bot usage, and X sends you a notice about that the first time, so don't tag @bot under every meme. Tagging isn't available yet for X accounts based in Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, or Norway, and @bot stays quiet if the post has a video or GIF, also tags @grok, or your weekly usage is used up. Letting a bot into your DMs means it can see private chats, so spell out what it may accept, answer, or ignore. The X plugin runs on X API credits; SpaceXSI says paid Grok Bot users get free credits to start. On email, an alias is just another spelling of your address, so treat it as a filter, not a password. Routines only run for senders that pass standard email checks by default, they can't filter by subject, and anything your Bot wants to send waits as a draft for your OK.