Consumers are increasingly using only a few core apps on their phones heavily, suggesting apps as the primary mode of interaction may be reaching its limit. Messaging platforms and services are positioning themselves as new portals for accessing information and services, with companies like Slack replacing work email and Facebook Messenger allowing ordering food or booking travel directly within the app. This could lead to a future with more seamless integration between apps and services through messaging platforms, with "invisible apps" that are accessed through text and do not require dedicated interfaces.

1. Smarter Phones:
Products After The App
Song Hia and Jamie Curry
Always On Always Connected
ITP Spring 2015

2. Topics
● What Do People With $$$ Think
● Recent Developments With Phone Platforms
● Products Vs Features
● Work Email’s Replacement
● Applications of The Future

3. The Messaging Is
The Medium Is
The Message?

4. Have We Reached Peak App?
Consumers Spend 85% Of Time On Smartphones In Apps, But Only 5 Apps See
Heavy Use, TechCrunch (Forrester Report)
“And what do you do when you don’t open an app? You forget about it, or you
trash it.” Why you shouldn’t bother creating a mobile app, Founder of A Failed App
Once upon a time, there was the Web, and you HAD TO build a SaaS app. It was
great at first, then it became quite crowded. Then came the social platforms, and
you HAD TO build a Facebook or Twitter app. It was great, then acquisition cost
started to suck. Then, there were the mobile platforms, and you HAD TO build a
mobile app. It was great at first, then distribution and retention became hell. Why
you should build a Slack app, Founder of A Slack App

5. VCs + Messaging Co. See Messaging As Portal

6. VCs + Messaging Co. See Messaging As Portal

7. VCs + Messaging Co. See Messaging As Portal

8. -Jonathan Libov, Union Square Ventures, Futures of Text

9. Interaction Shift: Systems > Destinations
“The idea of having a screen full of icons, representing independent apps, that
need to be opened to experience them, is making less and less sense. The idea
that these apps sit in the background, pushing content into a central experience, is
making more and more sense. That central experience may be something that
looks like a notification centre today, or something similar to Google Now, or
something entirely new.”
The End Of Apps As We Know Them, Paul Adams, PM

10. > OS Integration Across Apps (B2C)
Google Now On Tap
● debuted with Marshmallow
● you don’t have to leave an app to search
● built into the operating system
Apple Proactive
● debuted with iOS9
● time, location, connection sensitive
● automatic calendar events based on invites
● time to leave reminders based on traffic
● unknown call - searches email for possible contacts
● news based on location

12. Push vs. Pull
“A better thing to do, would be to let
users select what kind of
notifications to send them.”
Notifcation Overload? Imrand Parvez, Product Deisgner
BitChemy Ventures

13. Tradeoff: Apple Design Guidelines Then & Now
How Apple Is Giving Design A Bad Name

14. “There’s a lot of startups that are features masquerading as
companies, and they’ll find a better home in this world,” he
says. “For some transactions, it’s ideal. If you can write a
perfect API, there’s no longer a need to wrap it up in an app
or UI.”
-Mark Rolston, Founder Argodesign, Apple and Google Race
To See Who Can Kill The App First
Product Vs Feature

15. “Invisible Apps Text, email, and tweet to make stuff happen.
Apps without an interface.” Product Hunt

17. Messaging Replacing Work Email
“Email is extremely effective for people who LARP through their jobs. Slack is
even better.”
Are You Just LARPing Your Job?, The Awl
“Slack is the exemplar of a trend analysts have dubbed the consumerization of
enterprise technology. It's the idea that the ubiquity of smartphones and the
popularity of apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and Candy Crush have changed
our collective expectations of how software should look and function, creating
huge opportunities for business applications as intuitive and user-friendly as the
ones people use for fun.”
Slack Is Our Company of the Year. Here's Why Everybody's Talking About It, Inc.

18. A New App Store (B2B) "It was a virtuous circle. We didn't
realize how strategic it would be as a
business deal until after Slack had
launched. And then suddenly it was
just very obvious — the more apps
we get people to install, the more
likely they are to keep using Slack."
Slack launches an app store and an
$80 million fund to invest in new
integrations, The Verge
“Many companies are revamping
tools that have existed for a long time
with a Slack mindset: Slack as an
acquisition channel.” - Chat Bots
Weekly

19. Let’s Check Out Slack As A Portal

20. Who Is (The Quartz News App) For?
“Quartz's news app may be a bold experiment in conversational interfaces, but it's
one designed for people who think that the most exciting thing in the world is that
little ellipsis bubble at the bottom of the iMessage window, people who live in
delirious anticipation of the next time their iPhone buzzes in their hand.”
Quartz's New App Is Like Giving Your Number To The Wrong Dude At The Club,
FastCo

21. Soon you’ll be able to order takeout, or book a flight, or buy shoes,
all from within Facebook Messenger

22. Are these “apps”?

23. Optimized Input
Would you talk to this?

24. Optimized Input
How about this?

25. “Tear down this wall!” - Ronald Reagan
Phone-less App Integration

26. Ideas + Questions
● Evolving Phone Platforms Change Way Info Accessed / Problems Solved
● Messenger Products Continue To Evolve
● Minimal UI? Text-only Is A Return To Command Line (DOS / Terminal)
● Changes In Consumer Tech Drive Changes In Business Tech + The Way We
Work
● What Are The Portals And Interactions We Use To Access Data?
● Consumer + Business Apps Being Revamped For Business Context
● Slack Meetup Thursday March 10