The lines between digital, mobile, technology and apps are blurring in today’s world. We at Robosoft are keen followers of developments in this arena. Here’s a quick summary of what’s buzzing:
Disappearing messages on Messenger?
Facebook’s Messenger app for iOS may very soon have a feature that allows users to disappear messages from their conversation. The feature lets users adjust the duration for which their messages are visible in chats and also turn off the feature when not needed. The secret chat feature may appeal greatly to users who want to keep things private.
Biz Stone re-launches Jelly
Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, re-launched Jelly, a Q&A app that was originally launched in 2014. The notion behind this app is that humans can help you answer your question in a much better way than search engines. Despite this well known fact, other companies like Yahoo Answers, Askville, Quora haven’t been able to overtake search engines, perhaps due to the time it takes to get a question answered. The AI and chat bots might help with this format but then it would be in conflict with Stone’s basic idea of making the search more human.
Twitter moves from social media to news
Twitter is no more a social networking app but a news app in the Apple’s App Store. The change was observed after Twitter updated its app on 27th of April. Previously, under the “social networks” category, it occupied the fifth spot behind Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. However, after being re-categorised as a news app, the app is now sitting at the top spot under the free “news” app category. Will this strategy help Twitter boost its earnings?
A world without apps?
Bots have become the hottest tech topic after Facebook’s F8 conference. Businesses have already started integrating bots into their services. But, does that mean apps are going to be obsolete in the near future? Probably not. Tom Goodwin, the senior vice president of strategy and innovation at Havas Media, shares his insights on what future holds for apps, AI, bots, voice control and wearable, in a very interesting read “Welcome to the post-app world?” on TechCrunch.
InfoScout: Lets users sell their purchase history
E-commerce sites and advertising companies thrive on data stored about consumer behaviour behind their backs, which does not sit well with the users. In this context, InfoScout, a startup based in San Francisco, lets users share their purchase history for rewards. Based on these receipts the company draws useful insights and shares it with the companies to strategize their sales better.
