Chatbots vs. apps: who wins?
Recently, a lot of information has appeared in the Internet media that chatbots will soon kill mobile apps. Is it really?
Just a couple of years ago, most Internet users were sure that popular social networks would “kill” almost all instant messengers. But today there is a completely opposite trend. At the beginning of 2016, the most demanded instant messengers had more active users than on social networks. Popular applications for communication daily replenished with new members. We give the number of active users of messengers per month at the moment:
1.WhatsApp - 1 billion
2.Facebook Messenger - 800 million
3.WeChat - 650 million.
4.Skype - 300 million
5.Viber - 236 million
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In most cases, instant messengers are used for personal communication, do not have as much advertising as social networks. Such services are more competitive with many applications, the reason for which is also the development of chatbots.
Chatbot is a special program that provides the user with the ability to simulate a real conversation. For example, these are the popular today applications Siri or Cortana. But they occupy a lot of space, so the “light” chatbots in messengers come to the fore.
The most promising use of chatbots is business. They can perform not only the role of interlocutor, but also help to find the necessary information, take customer orders, learn foreign languages, be used as technical support. After integration, the development of chatbots will receive, after integration, the possibility of making payments through them.
All thoughts about the future chatbot divided into 2 groups. According to some experts, they will be able to replace up to 80% of existing applications and almost completely force out social networks. But others believe that their popularity is an artificially raised information wave, and the chatbot “bubble” will soon burst. Let's look at the arguments of each of the parties.
The main advantage of chatbots is their lightness. They do not need a large amount of memory, long installation time and settings. In addition, very many messengers today are actively advertised in the media, which contributes to an increase in the number of users. Not all mobile application developers today can spend money on advertising. Therefore, you will never know about 99.99% of applications (of which there are already more than 1.5 million)!
It is because of the growing popularity of instant messengers that Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook bought out WhatsApp, fearing the churn of users. Soon the company launched an online chatbot store for instant messengers. The company is also testing a new assistant M, which allows you to purchase different things, make reservations, order tickets and solve many other problems.
Other developers are not far behind. So, with the help of chatbot in Kik today you can order a table in a cafe by scanning its code. In 2015, Microsoft conducted a large experiment and offered its customers a chat with the Xiaoice chatbot. For 6 months, 40 million people spoke with this bot and spoke positively about it.
The use of bots will be useful in the following cases:
If a person needs to find the answer or solve a single problem, there is no need for a large number of options.
If the user is comfortable to communicate with the service without changing the context.
If entering data is much easier than analyzing it, the bot will perform the procedure per person.
Despite many advantages, including easy synchronization between devices on different operating systems, today's chatbots are somewhat inferior to applications.
Messengers are closed platforms that provide less control than applications. Using a conversational interface is an excellent opportunity to interact with different products, but not so versatile. It is impossible to integrate games, editors and other applications into the instant messenger itself. Therefore, chatbots can exist with them, not separately.
The developers of instant messengers promise that their programs will save from a large number of icons on the desktops of devices. But instead of them there will be lists of chats and bots, between which you will need to make the same choice as in the applications. For example, already at this moment, the internal navigation Telegram can not be called convenient.
Of course, the active development of chatbot can significantly change the existing ecosystem of applications. Their use will free us from performing unnecessary actions, automating operations to the maximum. It is a conversational interface that will become the most effective method of communication with machines.
In any case, we believe that this will not happen tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow. In the near future, chatbots will provide commercial organizations with a reliable channel of interaction with customers. At a minimum, they will be part of integrated information systems when working with consumers and will effectively complement existing applications, and, as a maximum, will take a substantial market share.
Just a couple of years ago, most Internet users were sure that popular social networks would “kill” almost all instant messengers. But today there is a completely opposite trend. At the beginning of 2016, the most demanded instant messengers had more active users than on social networks. Popular applications for communication daily replenished with new members. We give the number of active users of messengers per month at the moment:
1.WhatsApp - 1 billion
2.Facebook Messenger - 800 million
3.WeChat - 650 million.
4.Skype - 300 million
5.Viber - 236 million
')
In most cases, instant messengers are used for personal communication, do not have as much advertising as social networks. Such services are more competitive with many applications, the reason for which is also the development of chatbots.
Chatbot is a special program that provides the user with the ability to simulate a real conversation. For example, these are the popular today applications Siri or Cortana. But they occupy a lot of space, so the “light” chatbots in messengers come to the fore.
The most promising use of chatbots is business. They can perform not only the role of interlocutor, but also help to find the necessary information, take customer orders, learn foreign languages, be used as technical support. After integration, the development of chatbots will receive, after integration, the possibility of making payments through them.
All thoughts about the future chatbot divided into 2 groups. According to some experts, they will be able to replace up to 80% of existing applications and almost completely force out social networks. But others believe that their popularity is an artificially raised information wave, and the chatbot “bubble” will soon burst. Let's look at the arguments of each of the parties.
Chatbots - the future killers of mobile applications?
The main advantage of chatbots is their lightness. They do not need a large amount of memory, long installation time and settings. In addition, very many messengers today are actively advertised in the media, which contributes to an increase in the number of users. Not all mobile application developers today can spend money on advertising. Therefore, you will never know about 99.99% of applications (of which there are already more than 1.5 million)!
It is because of the growing popularity of instant messengers that Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook bought out WhatsApp, fearing the churn of users. Soon the company launched an online chatbot store for instant messengers. The company is also testing a new assistant M, which allows you to purchase different things, make reservations, order tickets and solve many other problems.
Other developers are not far behind. So, with the help of chatbot in Kik today you can order a table in a cafe by scanning its code. In 2015, Microsoft conducted a large experiment and offered its customers a chat with the Xiaoice chatbot. For 6 months, 40 million people spoke with this bot and spoke positively about it.
Chatbots - the next information "bubble"?
The use of bots will be useful in the following cases:
If a person needs to find the answer or solve a single problem, there is no need for a large number of options.
If the user is comfortable to communicate with the service without changing the context.
If entering data is much easier than analyzing it, the bot will perform the procedure per person.
Despite many advantages, including easy synchronization between devices on different operating systems, today's chatbots are somewhat inferior to applications.
Messengers are closed platforms that provide less control than applications. Using a conversational interface is an excellent opportunity to interact with different products, but not so versatile. It is impossible to integrate games, editors and other applications into the instant messenger itself. Therefore, chatbots can exist with them, not separately.
The developers of instant messengers promise that their programs will save from a large number of icons on the desktops of devices. But instead of them there will be lists of chats and bots, between which you will need to make the same choice as in the applications. For example, already at this moment, the internal navigation Telegram can not be called convenient.
findings
Of course, the active development of chatbot can significantly change the existing ecosystem of applications. Their use will free us from performing unnecessary actions, automating operations to the maximum. It is a conversational interface that will become the most effective method of communication with machines.
In any case, we believe that this will not happen tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow. In the near future, chatbots will provide commercial organizations with a reliable channel of interaction with customers. At a minimum, they will be part of integrated information systems when working with consumers and will effectively complement existing applications, and, as a maximum, will take a substantial market share.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/307458/
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