The rise of app-less experience: How it will challenge the app ecosystem

The last decade has belonged to the apps and to the product management. A lot of innovation took place in that space. Who can forget swipe-right from Tinder? Or one-click buying from Amazon? Or Netflix's "Skip Intro"? Tons of post-it notes have been scribbled onto to make the navigation easier for the end user. Empathy mapping workshops and design thinking sessions have worked hard to make things easier for the end user.

But now there is a new kid in town, the chatbot. Fueled by large language models (LLMs) and made popular by ChatGPT, the apps will increasingly move towards providing a chat type interface, where they will start taking instructions in natural language and then change it to commands.

The driving force will be simplicity. There are no menus, sidebars, or buttons. All you need is a text pane to enter your prompt, eg “book my flight” or “order the same lunch I had yesterday” or even better “order something healthy today”. Voice commands will outnumber the typed ones as the prompt source.

Another reason why chatbots are becoming more popular is that they can reduce the clutter of apps on our devices. Last I counted, I had 202 apps on my phone. That is a lot of apps. All I need is a single virtual assistant or a kind of super-app that can get the job done.

But why are chatbots so appealing? What are the benefits of using natural language as the input and output of apps? Here are some reasons:

• Chatbots are more conversational and personalized. They can use natural language to understand the user’s intent, context, preferences, and emotions. They can also provide feedback, suggestions, and clarifications in a friendly and engaging manner.
• Chatbots are more accessible and inclusive. They can support multiple languages and dialects, as well as different modes of communication such as text, voice, or images. They can also cater to different user groups such as children, seniors, or people with disabilities.
• Chatbots are more adaptive and flexible. They are not limited by existing set of finite fields and filters. They can manage complex commands such as “show me the cheapest flights from New York to London next week that have at least one stopover in Paris” or “find me a nearby restaurant that serves vegan food and has good reviews”.
• Chatbots are more efficient and convenient. They can automate repetitive and mundane tasks, such as booking appointments, ordering food, or checking the weather. They can also integrate with other apps and platforms, such as email, calendar, or social media, to provide a seamless user experience.

The App will not go away

It does not mean that Apps will go away, as each app does much more than what is shown on its UI. They will manage business rules, security and the data in the back-end which power the application.

A chatbot would co-exist with this app by replacing the GUI with a natural language interface. The user could simply type or say something like “I want to book a flight from New York to London next week” or “Show me some hotels near the Eiffel Tower” or “I need a car rental for three days in Rome”. The chatbot would parse the user’s input and generate structured queries or commands that the app’s API can process. The user would not have to navigate through complex menus, buttons, forms, and filters to find and book their options.

In summary, chatbots may transform the way we interact with apps.

Note : The views expressed here are my own. Thank you for reading!