Ask IH: Please destroy my idea or it will destroy me!
Ok... maybe the title's a little bit too drastic, but I need to understand if this is a viable idea or not.
Pitch
App stores are full of apps: 2.2M on AppStore and 2.8M on PlayStore, but the average user focuses only on 10 apps, uses 25 and has 60-90 installed. The major focus is on social-networking apps, communication, video and so on... But there is a small percentage of apps everyone of us uses daily/weekly to resolve some minor needs (getting bus arrival time, weather, converting currencies, ...): let's call them utility apps.
And I see 2 problems with this segment
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From user side: Needs to search on the store, filter through all available apps, evaluate based on available images/reviews, download the app, organize it inside the drawer (optional), run it. If bad: repeat.
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From developer side: Needs to know how to & develop an app for both iOS and Android. Buy a licence for both stores, setup account, publish app, market it.
As for the actual app, needs to think about design, develop screens and integrate it with server side APIs.
Idea
The bot sector is growing fast, and they are resolving some of these issues, however pretty much all are Chatbots, meaning they communicate with the user through chat messages, and are hosted on messaging platforms like Facebook, Telegram, and so on...
But chat messages are not the perfect solution to everything.
The idea is: why using chat messages? Why not making available 10+ standard components (like buttons, list items, image tiles, picker, ....) and build dynamically custom screens, using these components, based on a server side API response.
Imagine opening this app:
- Main screen: all your "activated" bots
- Click on bot: there is a request made to the bot server and the screen is built dynamically based on the json response
- Use the bot functionalities this way: is there a clickable button? When clicked, request made, page build dynamically using default components.
Now let's suppose the user wants to search for a bot:
- Marketplace screen: filter through all available bots, evaluate based on available images/reviews, "activates" it. If bad: repeat. (Since a bot doesn't need to be downloaded).
This is fundamentally better than the current situation
App: filter through all available apps, evaluate based on available images/reviews, download the app, organize it inside the drawer (optional), run it. If bad: repeat.
Bot: filter through all available bots, evaluate based on available images/reviews, "activates" it. If bad: repeat. (Since a bot doesn't need to be downloaded).
There are 2 main advantages:
- bot doesn't have to be downloaded: immediate feedback and usage
- no space occupied on the phone
Finally, something that can be both a pro and a con: standardized UI for all bots (with minor branding tweaks available).
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Can be a pro because of the low learning curve, once you know how to use a bot, you know how to use them all.
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Can be a con because of the little personalization available, of course a hand-crafted app it's gonna be more customizable.
Problems
Of course if it would be that easy I would already made it and became a millionaire, but there are some problems need taking note of:
- Need to both market the idea and make users download the app: not easy at all.
- Need to convince developers to develop a custom backend just for this bot platform.
- Users will not download a "bot platform" app without bots and developers will not develop bots for a platform without users: short-circuit.
Ok that's pretty much all. I hope that's clear enough.
What do you genuinely think? Let me know!!
I’ll be honest, I read your post and still have no idea what your idea is. Can you explain your idea in 1-2 sentences?
Too confusing. Can you articulate your problem and the solution in one sentence?
I think you’re in a situation where you want to create some sort of platform but you’re not sure if it’ll be any good: users and dev use it.
I’d say make the advantages for both sides clear. ‘Why would i install it? I don’t care about your bots.’
I like the utility app platform idea. I’m guessing a lot of these utilities are not so great but provide super valuable info to users, so they use it. If you can make this better you’re onto something. But what’s the value for the ones who were building the original app? There’s probably a big disconnect between the utility (bus company etc) and the app end user and the official apps get built by contractors of some sorts. If that’s the case contractors won’t update to your platform unless hired again - what’s the benefit for utility company then?
To start this I would try to get a niche where you can provide all utilities and slowly move to different niches until other devs join in. Maybe going local or something like that. Go after gym timetables and bookings around a city as you build the platform (so users install it for that reason - users shouldn’t care about platforms and dev benefits).
But... what about a package of open source components instead? How about js based apps that work in both platforms? Ionic? React native?
I’m not sure downloading an app is an issue - download try delete. It’s quite easy and fast. Annoying bit is if they ask me for auth before I can do anything and that takes longer
I would disagree with the statement that "the bot sector is growing".
Sure, there's plenty of companies jumping on board, but as a user 90% of the bots are still useless.
u r 2 years too and/or lived under a rock. fb did all what you said with its messenger
i beg to differ. yes there're many bots. they were build two years ago bc of ai hype and fb messengers bot ecosystem. chat bots are another channel but idk of any huger thing in this space
chats bots have one advantage, if you use an existing messenger with a good api, you can develop them quite fast