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The concept of Messenger becoming a second homescreen for the smartphone is an interesting one. Suddenly their decision to separate Messenger from Facebook on m

by _xander 10y ago

The concept of Messenger becoming a second homescreen for the smartphone is an interesting one. Suddenly their decision to separate Messenger from Facebook on mobile makes a lot more sense. If you think of Messenger as a different type of interface, I think the value-add are the limitations it places on providers: services have to be primarily text-based and updates will all arrive as nested within one push notification (at least on android). Plus, as the analysis mentioned, the threading, logs and identity functionality is built-in. It's almost like having a terminal window for a bunch of rigid functions that works in plain English and anyone can get to grips with. Now I'm thinking about a parallel universe where text-based interfaces never went away...

searine 10y ago
Eventually the browser will merge with messenger as a two-way internet portal. Currently, browser is outgoing, and messenger is incoming but if an app can integrate both. Well, that's your online homescreen...
nostromo 10y ago
It seems far-fetched to me that Facebook will be the company to own the voice assistant market in 5 or 10 years (assuming there is a market that exists at all). Google is probably best poised to take leadership here. They have a fleet of phones in peoples' hands, great AI resources, and relationships with millions of businesses that want to sell things and services. Facebook, Amazon, and Apple all seem to be missing a key component for this market, but Google checks all of the boxes.
- morgante 10y ago
  > They have a fleet of phones in peoples' hands, great AI resources, and relationships with millions of businesses that want to sell things and services. Facebook has all those except a fleet of phones. But they have an app installed on practically every phone.
  - walrus01 10y ago
    Facebook has become an indispensable app for the very low end $40-45 android smartphones. Such as the ones you can see for sale on AliExpress with 3.7" screens and Android 4.4 running on a very cheap MediaTek chipset. People who buy these in developing nations usually require that the handset retail vendor install the .APK for Facebook (though they don't know the process of HOW facebook gets installed without the Play store, they just know that "I want facebook on my phone), before buying the phone. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/the-facebook-loving-farmers-of-myanmar/424812/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/the-fa...
    - chambo622 10y ago
      This is fascinating, and also sounds like an extremely high-risk situation from a malware perspective. Isn't Facebook Lite [1] supposed to address this? I'm surprised they haven't solved distribution in these markets. [1] https://www.facebook.com/lite/ https://www.facebook.com/lite/
andrewmb 10y ago
You should download and explore WeChat (微信）. It seems like facebook at this point is now chasing functionality that's been present in Chinese apps for several years. WeChat lets you order food, buy train tickets, etc in addition to the messaging. The comparison I've heard is that in software B2C China is ahead by 5 years, B2B USA leads by 5 years. And China is defining new C2C and O2O. Hardware is a toss-up.
- thirdsun 10y ago
  This is an essential piece if you're interested in this topic: http://dangrover.com/blog/2016/04/20/bots-wont-replace-apps.html http://dangrover.com/blog/2016/04/20/bots-wont-replace-apps.... A lot of the features WeChat offers seem to make sense - it surprised me.
  - collinmanderson 10y ago
    What I want to know is, why hasn't WeChat been done in English yet?
    - inlandrookie 10y ago
      It has.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

by _xander 10y ago

searine 10y ago

Eventually the browser will merge with messenger as a two-way internet portal. Currently, browser is outgoing, and messenger is incoming but if an app can integrate both. Well, that's your online homescreen...

nostromo 10y ago

It seems far-fetched to me that Facebook will be the company to own the voice assistant market in 5 or 10 years (assuming there is a market that exists at all). Google is probably best poised to take leadership here. They have a fleet of phones in peoples' hands, great AI resources, and relationships with millions of businesses that want to sell things and services. Facebook, Amazon, and Apple all seem to be missing a key component for this market, but Google checks all of the boxes.

morgante 10y ago
> They have a fleet of phones in peoples' hands, great AI resources, and relationships with millions of businesses that want to sell things and services. Facebook has all those except a fleet of phones. But they have an app installed on practically every phone.
- walrus01 10y ago
  Facebook has become an indispensable app for the very low end $40-45 android smartphones. Such as the ones you can see for sale on AliExpress with 3.7" screens and Android 4.4 running on a very cheap MediaTek chipset. People who buy these in developing nations usually require that the handset retail vendor install the .APK for Facebook (though they don't know the process of HOW facebook gets installed without the Play store, they just know that "I want facebook on my phone), before buying the phone. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/the-facebook-loving-farmers-of-myanmar/424812/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/the-fa...
  - chambo622 10y ago
    This is fascinating, and also sounds like an extremely high-risk situation from a malware perspective. Isn't Facebook Lite [1] supposed to address this? I'm surprised they haven't solved distribution in these markets. [1] https://www.facebook.com/lite/ https://www.facebook.com/lite/

andrewmb 10y ago

You should download and explore WeChat (微信）. It seems like facebook at this point is now chasing functionality that's been present in Chinese apps for several years. WeChat lets you order food, buy train tickets, etc in addition to the messaging. The comparison I've heard is that in software B2C China is ahead by 5 years, B2B USA leads by 5 years. And China is defining new C2C and O2O. Hardware is a toss-up.

thirdsun 10y ago
This is an essential piece if you're interested in this topic: http://dangrover.com/blog/2016/04/20/bots-wont-replace-apps.html http://dangrover.com/blog/2016/04/20/bots-wont-replace-apps.... A lot of the features WeChat offers seem to make sense - it surprised me.
- collinmanderson 10y ago
  What I want to know is, why hasn't WeChat been done in English yet?
  - inlandrookie 10y ago
    It has.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]