Grok Bot Builds Slide Decks: Breakdown of Releases 0.64 to 0.68

James Turner

Welcome to Grok Bot Release Notes, brought to you by Jellypod AI, the easiest platform to create AI podcasts and generative videos. Grok Bot shipped a lot in about a week, going by xAI's official changelog. Versions 0.64.0 through 0.68.1 landed between September 30th and October 7th, 2026. I'll go through the changes that matter most and how you can use them.

James Turner

Start with the newest one, version 0.68.1, from October 7th. The headline is slide decks. Bots can now build decks with you. They show sample slides to choose from, then deliver the result as PowerPoint files or Google Slides. If you've been using a Bot for research, ask it to turn that research into a deck. You pick the look from the samples instead of trusting one blind attempt.

James Turner

The same release changes how your chats look. Your messages in a one to one Bot chat now take that Bot's color. That requires Grok Bot 0.64.0 or later. If you don't like it, set Accent to Black in Settings, under General.

James Turner

Email got attention too. Bots can send formatted emails from a draft card, so recipients see headings, bold text, and lists. Bots can also search your Gmail Spam folder and move a message back to your inbox. That one is handy when a real message got buried.

James Turner

Now the speed change, which I think is the sleeper. Bots work faster on their computer. Actions settle sooner, screenshots come back quicker, and new windows skip a five second wait. The Bot's computer screen also grew to 1920 by 1200, up from 1280 by 800. That gives you more room when you watch it work or take over. And version 0.63.0 earlier in the week had already shortened the waits for pages to settle after each click or form submission.

James Turner

There are also fixes in 0.68.1 for the things that make people give up on an agent. Gmail actions fail less often. Send and reply no longer report a missing tool, and Bots wait out Google's rate limits. If you press Stop right as a Send goes out, the email still goes. Attachments keep their file names. The Bot's browser recovers from a crashed tab, and it gives up on a stuck page after 25 seconds. Stop or a new message ends a Bot stuck on an unresponsive step within about 30 seconds.

James Turner

Two more safety details. Secure Forms now fill into the page the Bot has open. Checkout card fields get a Secure Form instead of a screen handoff. And when X or Vercel needs you to sign in again, the Bot shows a reconnect card instead of retrying or giving up.

James Turner

Two days earlier, October 5th, version 0.68.0 added Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Swahili, and Hausa to the Language options in Settings. You can now remove your other computers under Settings, then Computer. A removed computer tells you to restart Grok Bot to add it back. Email drafts can go out from a verified Gmail send as address, with a From picker if you have more than one.

James Turner

Approval cards got clearer in that release. They ask whether to allow the Bot by name and quote its instruction, and saved rules are now called Custom Rules. You can also right click a routine to pause, resume, test, edit, or delete it. And copying or saving a large image, or opening a large JSON or Markdown file, no longer freezes the app.

James Turner

Now the earlier part of the week. Version 0.67.0, on October 2nd, renamed Marketplace to Connect Apps. It adds category chips under the search, shows Recommended for you first, and adds Bot templates on the web. While a Bot works, its status uses phrases like Thinking it through and Working on your computer. Approval cards now show when your Ask first rule paused an action, or when Always allow added a rule, with an Edit rule button that takes you to Settings.

James Turner

Also on October 2nd, version 0.66.0 added proactivity. Your primary Bot, marked with a star, will now spot work it can take off your plate and offer to handle it. That requires Grok Bot 0.59.0 or later. A Bot that hangs on an unresponsive command or computer now stops itself with a note, and your next message picks up where it left off.

James Turner

Version 0.65.0, September 30th, turned Automatic Updates on by default. Grok Bot restarts to apply updates while you're away, and you can turn it off in Settings, under Updates. Your phone also skips notifications for a Bot you're viewing on your computer, and resumes them once the computer locks, sleeps, or sits idle. That's a real quality of life fix if your phone buzzes constantly.

James Turner

Version 0.64.0 landed the same day. Email and Slack draft cards offer Disable drafts for this Bot, so that Bot sends messages directly. Ask the Bot to turn drafts back on later. Bot avatars also got a refreshed look with bigger eyes, plus new shapes like square, sparkle, clover, flower, heart, house, and star.

James Turner

Several of these changes are labeled Teams. That fits the Team Bots public beta xAI announced on September 28th, available on Teams and Enterprise plans. A Team Bot is a Bot you share with your whole team. Teammates chat with it in the app or Slack, each in their own conversation. This week's Teams updates added voice chat with a Team Bot, Managers who can edit a Team Bot's profile and plugins, and Slack approval cards that only you can answer. Team Bots can also mention a Slack user group, while @here and @channel still don't ping anyone.

James Turner

Here's a real example from xAI's announcement. Harper, an insurance company serving small businesses, built a Team Bot to find customers with lapsed policies and help them reinstate coverage. Its CEO, Dakotah Rice, said they built it in 24 hours, and that it saved customers over $120,000 from hundreds of policies. That's the company's own account, but it shows the pattern. Pick a repetitive workflow across a few tools, and give a Bot the job.

James Turner

One model note, kept brief. Grok 4.7 reached the xAI API on September 21st, with a 500k context window. The sources I have don't say whether Grok Bot uses it, so I won't claim that. Watch the official changelog for it.

James Turner

So how do you use all this? Update to the latest version, since Automatic Updates is now on by default. Try the slide deck flow on a real project. If email is part of your routine, retest Gmail, because the failure fixes are significant. And if you run a team, look at Team Bots. That's the week. Thanks for listening, and this episode was brought to you by Jellypod AI.