There's a quiet revolution going on in messaging.
Companies like Facebook, Google, Atlassian, and Slack are expanding their messaging apps beyond merely sending text, video, and audio, and into something a little bit more like a operating system.
Just today, for example, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google is working on a new chat app that will let developers build apps that plug right in to an instant messaging window, by way of a simple text interface.
It sounds like a competitor to the Facebook "M" project, a virtual assistant that aims to help you do everything from shopping to making restaurant reservations, right from within Facebook Messenger.
Right now, at the tail end of 2015, these souped-up chat apps look like a interesting trend. Some tech types call it ChatOps.
But if I were Apple, I would be losing a lot of sleep over the rise of the smarter messaging app. App Store rules
Apple's strategy to date has been massively successful. But it hinges on a series of interdependencies.
Most of Apple's recordbreaking revenues come from sales of the the iPhone. People like the iPhone in large part because of the App Store, the only legit way to get iPhone apps. And Apple takes a 30% cut of all App Store purchases.
It gives the App Store a unique gravity that makes it the center of the universe both for developers, who need it to sell their apps, and users, who need it to install them.
Once people have a bunch of iPhone apps, they're more likely to upgrade to another iPhone, rather than start from scratch on an Android phone.
These chat apps present an alternate path, for customers and developers alike. At risk is Apple's stranglehold on the world of apps, and maybe over the smartphone market itself. A new hope
Just look at Facebook, which now has its own app store, offering fun and useful extensions to 800 million-plus users who have Facebook Messenger installed.
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