#BigIdeas2016 - Towards A Connected App Economy?

As the caption besides my name says, my areas of interest include IoT, Gamification and how those phenomena can contribute to a Sustainable world. Hence, at the end of 2015, I envisioned my #BigIdeas2016 to lie somewhere on those spectrums. Or perhaps, how the "On-demand Economy" will shift our daily lifestyle or maybe, the possibility of my travelling to space after SpaceX's successful reusable rocket test, in December. 

But, as we start settling into 2016, my thoughts for a #BigIdea2016 get into a "micro mode". I take my mobile phone out  and I see at least 30 apps lined up. I have a number of open questions.

Is there a way that number can be reduced? Or more significantly, can those 30 odd apps be made to "smartly" connect among themselves?

The consumer has to choose a brand, before he engages in a transaction for a product. Makes sense. But why should take the pain of toggling between apps?

Infinite Apps and hence, Infinite Toggling between Apps? 

I am not here to argue that there should be a monopoly or a duopoly. Competition is in fact very healthy and possibly, moves us away from a startup bubble. This is one reason I felt positive when General Motors invested in Lyft this week, although Uber is a relatively higher valued company, with significantly more number of users than Lyft. 

But, as an everyday app user, I just wonder how many choices I need to make before I actually get my action done. I am certainly happy that I have so many brands to choose from and that each of those brands have an app, but I am not really happy with the switching between apps that I have to do, to get something done.

One innovation I hope gets seeded in 2016, is improving the user experience of app users. One simple user flow I can think of is choosing a restaurant to eat, booking a table, booking a taxi, paying the bill and getting back home.

Today, I need to choose an app to do each one of these transactions. As a customer, this means toggling between as many apps as the number of transactions I need to do, in order to get my job done.

Assuming a choice between at least 2 apps for each of the steps,  I have more than 10 choices and toggling between apps, for a simple task. After a hectic day at work, I want to have a relaxing dinner (doesn't seem so).

Connected Apps - A Better User Experience?

Wouldn't it be better if I could find a restaurant, reserve a table, order a taxi and pay online all in the same place, rather than having to open and close 4 different apps?

Wouldn't it be easier for me, the customer, if there is a technology which can facilitate a communication between Zomato, OpenTable, Uber and PayPal?

Wouldn't it help if Uber knows the restaurant I had booked a table at, by connecting with OpenTable, rather than having to select the location again in the Uber app?

I am envisioning a technology which is smart enough to understand what my end action is and then, helps me perform that, without having to toggle between apps. Today, this inter-app connection exists on a high level. For instance,

• Signing up on AirBnB, using the Facebook app
• Paying on mobile by connecting with an m-payment app (Pay on Uber by connecting with the Paypal app)
• Linking the mobile phone Contacts with Whatsapp

And more significantly,

• Linking Google Search and E-mail with third-party applications (Search "flights on Google; it displays your upcoming flight details with the flight status)

Hence, the question is; Can this be improved and made smarter?

A Step Towards Artificial Intelligence and IoT

As an enthusiast of the AI and its potential, I believe getting a technology like this built for app aggregation and communication, will be a big step towards making it easier for the machines to become intelligent. 

In other words, the AI assistant should be smart enough and capable of understanding my command as a user flow, rather than as a step by step instruction. Perhaps, this could be a small step for a smarter AI assistant, in the future.

For an IoT world, with connected devices, people and things, connected apps will certainly be necessary in order to use the potential of IoT. Having everything connected except the capability of the apps on my smartphone to talk among themselves, does not look like a complete solution, does it?

• Today, in the first phase towards a IoT connected world, we are able to use Uber and track a car only because Google Maps and the Uber app are connected, with an API. 

Can that extend to more apps for a better, user flow? How can we define those flows?

Challenges and Risks

Security & Privacy: One of the biggest challenges any technology has bestowed upon us, data privacy and security will be screamed upon. An aggregation technology will probably need to store the data of each app in the back end thereby increasing the risk of data thefts.

Moving on from the App Economy: It goes without saying that people hate change. And moving the industry from being an all-app economy to being an aggregated & connected-app economy will be a challenge for all the app aggregation organization.

So, do you think a technology to connect apps and facilitate communication between them makes sense? 

Or, do you think, this makes no sense and you are happy with the way things are? 

Look forward to your responses, critics and comments.