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A layer cake, perhaps analogous to the layers of functionality that make up most mobile devices, … [+]
In the stone age of mobile devices a couple of years ago, you actually had to tap an app icon and open an app to access its functionality. While backwards, burdensome and tedious, this ensured that if you were buying Shoe Giant # 1’s Air Jordans or a Ronald McDonald’s Big Mac, you would have at least a couple of interactions with the Nike or McDonalds brand.
Now, now both.
Today, Google Announced that “Ok Google” is the new gateway to your application functionality:
- Ok Google: order a Postmates shake
- Hey Google: post a message on Discord
- Ok Google: start running with Nike Run Club
- Hey Google: start a playlist on Spotify
- Ok Google: check my balance in Mint
This is good for me and for people who use technology. It is easier, faster and simpler. I have fewer things to remember, fewer apps to search, less time to waste finding them.
Hear this story on the TechFirst Podcast:
A magic phrase opens universes of possibilities.
As such, this kind of move was inevitable, as I mentioned recently: “Siri shortcuts and Google Assistant shortcuts reveal the future (and danger) of intelligent AI assistants.” It’s going to continue too, and you’ll be able to do more and more just by stroking the genie on your phone. Or on your smart speaker.
But this move is also potentially worrisome for app developers and publishers.
Anytime a customer or user gets the functionality your app provides without the hassle of having a brand experience in your app, they have to ask themselves: could Google, Apple, or Amazon just replace me? In other words, are smart assistants turning into layers of abstraction that hide lower-level functionality? And could Google so easily order a mocha than to call Starbucks or some other random cafe?
An abstraction layer in programming is something that hides the details. It is the curtain that the Wizard of Oz imposes between users and the machines, gears and levers of basic functionality.
Recipients of sorcery use their computers and phones without knowing anything about Cocoa or C #. And they’re happy not to know, because the abstraction layer allows them to focus on the product rather than the production: the result, not the effort.
A strong brand like Starbucks and a fan base that won’t settle for anything but their favorite eight-word caffeinated sweet could make some companies safe.
But is it your service, your product, your result so good that it cannot be replaced?
Apple has put a payment layer and potentially a registration layer between app publishers and customers in Apple Pay and Sign in with Apple. Google has similar technologies. That means they potentially own both payment and identity, two massive components of a customer relationship. And these are good things, because I don’t trust Random Developer # 37 with my credit card and I don’t trust Big Dumb Corp # 83 to manage my identity without getting hacked by some kiddie script in underwear.
But they separate brand and customer.
(And centralize the risk of piracy).
They are also increasingly tightening the bond between Apple and iPhone owners, or between Google and Android users. They reinforce the relationship between platform owners and individuals while breaking the relationship between app publishers and individuals.
The question for publishers and app brands will be more and more … are you just the provider of a basic product? Can someone else take your place? Are you more than a digital sharecropper?
That reality is not fully here yet.
But it is not very far either.
