Commuting again but things have changed.

I’m enjoying being back in the office more. This new balance of home and work works for me.?

There’s no tram out our way so the car, sadly, is still a much quicker way for me to get to Salford. I’m accompanied by a growing number of Tuesday, Wednesday And Thursday* commuters and re-joining the queues we create.

(*apparently there is a name for us)

Back behind the wheel and back in the traffic - but some things have changed. I’ve switched to in-car apps without really thinking about it. Apple’s Car Play has been around for a while, but the other day - in another standstill - I realised that I’d started to do some of the things that used to be filed under ‘Future Behaviours’ slides at the end of pitches.

Still lots of Spotify and maps, but nearly always a voice search these days. Other favourite time-killers like Blinkist and Bandcamp now have a driver-friendly interface - quite different to the phone screen - so tapping on that has become a new habit at the start of journeys. I listen to WhatsApp messages and dictate my replies. It’s where I check the day’s calendar and get the address of any meetings. I've started to expect the predictive suggestions.

What made me notice these creeping changes is when I paid for something via the car screen for the first time. Ok, just car parking on the RingGo app but that transaction is a sign of things to come. Even quicker and more intuitive than the phone and definitely ‘right place, right time’. There's a lot I'd buy from the driver's seat - for coffee, petrol and food sellers this should be a tap in. More will follow.

My car isn’t anything special. It’s bottom of the range and two years old - but now nearly all new cars come with app support. According to Apple, over 80% of new cars sold across the world support CarPlay. There’s also Android Auto. In-car app usage is set to soar.

And these apps aren’t complex or even that new - they are really just existing phone apps rendered to use your car’s display as an external monitor, usually with a much simplified interface. Google and Apple will want to take a closer look to make sure that there is nothing that will create unnecessary driver distraction -? options are removed rather than added. (If you want to go deep, look here.)

So, not that hard to do which means that there is a huge early mover opportunity for brands to get themselves on those dashboard screens before everybody else does and create new habits. The commuters are an easy target and a great opportunity - unlock value from daily journeys - but all businesses should be asking themselves the question “how might our app work in the car?”.

If any of this sounds interesting, we can help -? shout if you’d like to learn more.