There's a chat for that– is messaging the next big platform?

@richardkeen

from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report – http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

47

Messaging Apps = Top Global Apps in Usage + Sessions

6+ of Top 10 most used apps

globally = Messaging Apps

Messaging Apps Æ

significant app sessions

Source: Quettra, Q1:15. Data ranked based on usage. Quettra analyzes 75MM+ Android users spread out in more than 150 countries, collecting install and usage statistics of every application present on the device. Q1:15 data analyzed three months of data starting from 1/1/15. Data excludes Google apps and other commonly pre-installed apps to remove biases. Only apps with 10K+ installs worldwide and 100+ DAU are counted.

“Can Facebook Messenger kill off apps?” – The Telegraph, 15th November

“I always like to rewind to what people did before technology. Before

the web era, we just had conversations.”

– David Marcus, head of Messenger

“Messaging Leaders [are] aiming to create cross-platform operating systems that are context-persistent communication

hubs for more and more services”

– Mary Meeker, Internet Trends 2015

“Old: all software expands until it includes messaging New: all messaging expands until it includes software”

– @BenedictEvans, March 2015

Concept: requesting a Lyft ride through messaging

http://bit.ly/1lumnN6

operator.com: Real Operators. Real Recommendations.

Positive traitsNo download and no install to add a new service

Asynchronous both in delivery mechanism and variable speed communication style

Very low data usage and excellent intermittent network behaviour

Inherently social, works for 1-1, 1-N and N-N scenarios

Provides persistent context and an ongoing communication channel

Identity always provided

Inherently cross-device and cross-platform

Performs well on feature phones and low-end smartphones

Rich platform context and services

WeChat

“Many institutions that otherwise would have native apps or mobile sites have opted instead for official accounts … they’ll reply, either in an automated

fashion or by routing it to a human somewhere.” – http://dangrover.com/blog/2014/12/01/chinese-mobile-app-ui-trends.html

650 million MAU – platform capabilities since 2012

Order taxis, book cinema tickets, book an appointment at the doctor, send a payment, shop at 28 million+ stores,

all through a messaging app

Facebook Messenger & M 700 million MAU – Businesses on Messenger in UK Q1 2016

Facebook Messenger & M

“M felt revelatory when I had it call Amazon’s customer service line for me … ‘OK - Amazon has informed me that your refund is being processed and the amount will be reflected in your account in 2 to 3 business days!’.

Welcome to the future, I thought.” – http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/26/9605526/facebook-m-hands-on-personal-assistant-ai

M is an AI-based assistant exposed as just another contact in Messenger, with a human team overseeing and augmenting the

conversation

Try out Skyscanner’s prototype bot at

https://telegram.me/Skyscanner_Bot

Telegram

https://core.telegram.org/bots

Clever custom “keyboard” feature

Bots are created via a bot! – the BotFather

60 million MAU – bot API launched in June

cola.io – new messenger app based around rich conversation with businesses & services

SMS – not dead yet!

What about “assistants”?

“Smart agents like Cortana will replace the web browser” – Satya Nadella quoted in

Business Insider, 13th November

Posit: Siri, Cortana, Alexa are essentially limited forms of a conversational experience.

Platform enablers of conversational experiences

Programmatic send/receive APIs

Basic and rich content (card) representation options

Actionable UI elements such as buttons, maps and drop-downs

Access to contextual information such as location

Payment mechanisms

Custom response keyboards

Slack/CRM integrations for human responder cases

Building blocks of a conversational bot

Natural language processing

Conversational state management

APIs providing structured data and service functionality

Appropriate “card” and textual representations of content

Messaging within your app

https://smooch.io

https://layer.com

Where does this leave apps and the web?

Thanks!

@richardkeen@CodeVoyagers