There’s already been a fair amount written on the subject on the future of texting and of messaging-as-an-interface. Jonathan Libov had a pretty comprehensive set of ideas that established how a lightweight texting option could replace many of the apps that we deal with today. In the post title “Futures of Text” he says:

In contrast to a GUI that defines rules for each interaction — rules which, frustratingly, change from app to app — text-based, conversational interactions are liberating in their familiarity. There’s only really only one way to skin this cat: The text I type is displayed on the right, the text someone else typed is on the left, and there’s an input field on bottom for me to compose a message.

App overload is a real thing. Personally I have 109 apps installed on my iPhone right now, and that’s even after a massive purge about a month ago. I can’t possibly use more than 20% of them on a regular basis. For example, Airbnb, TripIt, Sprig, Lyft, Uber, and Venmo are just a handful of the many apps I need on my phone but don’t use them on a daily basis.

Just yesterday, during the 2015 WWDC keynote, Apple announced that the average iPhone has 119 apps on it. That’s insane!

With that in consideration, the “app” as the sole way I can interface with a service feels unnecessarily heavy handed but rich alternatives don’t exist. As Libov used as an example, NYC’s MTA Bus Time service makes it easy to just text a number and get bus times without need for a dedicated interface. It’s spartan, though it gets the basic job done. However, if you want anything more than just text you’re shit out of luck.

Therein lies the opportunity.

The end of the graphical user interface

Do we really believe that the GUI is the end-all-be-all way to interface with a computer? With each new app we need to learn how to use it. Sometimes this can be quick, and intuitive, but oftentimes there is a learning curve associated with it.

Two years ago Ron Kaplan wrote an article that begged the same question, and made a suggestion that the next evolution of our interaction with computers is the Conversational User Interface. The article itself was ahead of its time but seems to be extremely prescient for today.

There’s a chat for that

What if instead of installing an app, we might instead allow a service to chat with us via iMessage? From that point on, they’re just like any contact in your phone, enabling a two-way conversation to get things done. With each new conversation you’d give relevant permissions for contact and the moment you’d like to end it then the “app” could no longer message you. Easy!

It should be noted that when I say “conversation” I don’t mean that you’re just texting with a service (e.g. Magic, Luka, etc.). Likewise a “conversational user interface” isn’t limited to just text.

Example of apps as chats

In the above mockup you can see three different examples of experiences that are currently just apps. At their core, they’re all just handling transactions so why do we need a whole app and a ton of chrome to use their services?

Lyft

Request a ride, confirm the driver, hop in the car, and pay all through a single message stream.

Sprig

Request tonight’s dishes with a button, place an order, and pay all via conversation.

OpenTable

“Can I get a table for two at Namu Gaji tonight?” and boom, it’s done. Isn’t that so much easier than jumping through all of the hoops of navigating an app?

Obviously there are so many more examples of services that would work beautifully in this experience. For all of those apps that you might otherwise use just once or twice, you might instead just bring up a conversation.

Additionally, this kind of experience would make onboarding customers dramatically faster and easier. Each conversation would prompt iOS to ask what kind of information be shared, including perhaps your name, photo, and maybe your address. Payment would all be done through Apple Pay, making for ultra fast and seamless transactions.

MessageKit would be similar to Apple’s other *Kits in that it would enable developers to quickly build out an experience based on guides. It would include a permission stack, the ability to create unique input methods, and a way to enable discovery. From a user’s perspective the entire thing would be opt-in. Apps wouldn’t be able to just start messaging you without initiating.

Imagining what it might look like…