App evolution
Is iPhone 14 pro Dynamic Island the latest step to a “new form” of apps?
Do you remember this 1999 Advertising from Budweiser?
The campaign became an instant viral and cultural phenomenon.
As you see at that time, we did not have mobile phones, but phone calls started to be cheap enough to allow us “ping” each other just to “check what we were doing” , check our status…
10 years later, Jan Koum and Brian Acton made a phone book App to show users “statuses” before a call.
Jan was annoyed by the fact that he continuously lost phone calls while he was training in the gym.
He named it ‘WhatsApp’ because it sounded more like what’s up, which aligned with the idea of statuses. Initially it was not successful.
In 2009 Apple add push notification in iOS. WhatsApp exploited push notifications to inform its users about others “status change” without the need to open the app.
People started to utilise the “status update” to “ping” each others.
Success!
Probably Whatsapp (in its initial form) was one of the first apps that could just be used and be usable without opening the full version of it.
Let´s go a bit back in time.
🥱 Only System apps -> 🔥 Apps Galore
The original iPhone in 2007 came with only preinstalled apps like Phone, Weather, Notes, Calendar, Photos, and Calculator, but there was no official way to install native third-party apps until the App Store launched in July 2008.
The App Store ignited a cultural, social and economic phenomenon that changed how people work, play, meet, travel and so much more.
Over the past decade, upgrading its hardware and OS, Apple have also changed the way we interact with those apps and how they are in integrated with the iOS.
We have apps for everything: Sport, lifestyle, games, services, etc
Most users have more than 80 apps installed on their phones. (TechJury).
Of these 80 apps, the majority use 9 apps per day on average and 30 apps per month.
I have 283 apps ( 😱 I know, but in my defence I can say that my job is working with apps).
One of the reasons I (we?) have so many apps installed is that many are apps that I use everyday, some I use sporadically but are “service apps” (bank, insurance, finance, etc), some I almost never open but I think are potentially useful and therefore worth to keep, and other I simply forgot to erase.
The number 1 reason people uninstall apps is because they aren’t in use (CleverTap)
🫥 App forgot -> 🫶 App Favorite
For an app to be “in use” or “not deleted”, it needs to be useful, usable and desirable, or in a nutshell: provide a great user experience.
When an app reaches this status we want to access and enjoy it as quick as possible.
“ People appreciate a streamlined launch experience so they can start using your app immediately”. (Apple Guidelines)
🔓 Unlock > 🔎 Find > 🚀 Launch > ❤️ Enjoy
This is the typical user Journey you needed to complete to access and enjoy your favourite app in your phone.
During the years Apple created different technologies to unlock the phone as quick and secure as possible (from code lock to finger prints to biometrics).
After the phone is unlocked, the first and foremost way to access an app is to tap on its icon, but the number of the apps installed in our phones keep increasing every day along with the effort required from us to find and launch them.
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So Apple developed different way to quick find and access apps:
From iOs3 we can use Spotlight to find apps by searching by their names, in iOs4 we got Folders to arrange them by categories and later in iOS14 the App library to do the job automatically.
We can also launch apps using Siri or by tapping (my favourite 😎 ) on the back of the phone
With iOS16, now we can open apps directly from the lock screen using widgets.
But speed is nothing without control and launching an app as fast as possible is not the only thing users want from their favourite apps.
Relish the apps precious content and functions is a top priority and Apple guidelines are clear about widgets usage, for example:
Avoid creating a widget that only launches your app. People appreciate widgets because they provide instant access to meaningful content. A widget that behaves like an app icon offers no additional value and isn’t likely to remain on the screen.
People like quick ways to view the data they care about, even without opening an app.
During the years Apple evolved its iOS to include ways to use and access to relevant app features and informations without searching and launching apps.
From iOs5 introduced the Notification center that provides a quick glance of relevant informations of relevant apps. Then we got the Control center from iOs7 giving us a direct access to important settings for the device by swiping a finger up from the bottom of the display.
iOS14 provided us the home screen widgets so that now we are able to check on our app most relevant information without even opening it. With App Clips we can “have a taste” of an app without even fully downloading it.
With iOS 16 Lock screen widget and Live Activities we can access apps vital functions and get real-time updates without even unlocking the phone.
Widgets can permanently live on the home screen and aren’t necessarily associated with a particular live event, whereas Live Activities are associated with push notifications.
Rather than sending a new notification each time there is a status update, the new Live Activities feature give us interactive notification for the duration of the live event. This creates a cleaner, simpler, and more intuitive user experience by reducing the number of notifications sent, while also making information more readily accessible.
We can keep a check on the scores of a Sports match and easily track our taxi order without even unlocking our devices.
Finally with the iPhone pro 14 Dynamic Island’s we can check the status of on-going events/process started in different apps, also while we actively use the phone for other “type of activities” (like browsing internet) allowing us a full multitasking experience.
✂️ “Separated” Apps > 📋 “Integrated” apps?
In 2007 Apple gave us a new way to interact with our mobile phones providing us apps that assisted us in making calls, planning appointments, taking photos, etc.
In 2008 they enabled designers and developers to create a universe of personal assistants, entertainers, trainers, explorers, navigators, etc, etc.
The users interacted with the apps mostly as a single-task journey, an “isolated” experience, like planets available to explore jumping from one to another using the operative system as a launch base.
Iteration after iteration the apps are getting more and more integrated in the OS and the feeling is that many apps are becoming extensions of it.
Some apps after the first installation and configuration could definitively be fully experienced mostly in their Widget or live notification form.
For example in case of a taxi app after the initial config, users could fully experience the app “just” through widgets, live activities and notifications: “call” the taxi, follow the wait time and path, pay, etc.
If it provides all this widgets and this notifications, after an initial configuration, do will the user ever need to open the full app again?
🎨 New challenges for Apps designers ?
Maybe in the future the apps will just be installed as “extensions” of the OS and the core app used only for configuration and personalisation.
The deeper integration of the apps in to the native system are providing benefits for the users but also posing questions for the designers.
How do designers will handle the app visual identity, the brand, the uniqueness of the experience?
What do you think? Comment below.
