Away from the shiny CES showroom in the desert, this week there’s a strong focus on developments within messaging apps.
HEADLINES
- WeChat announces “mini programs”, embedded apps which require no download or install. Like ‘chatbots’, this is another tactic for keeping people in-App
- More, more, more! More ads are to appear on Instagram, including on Instagram Stories, and it is said that Facebook is going to start showing mid-roll ads in video
- The pressure is on Nintendo after pricing and timing is unveiled for its new console, the Switch.
INSIGHTS
- Amazon’s blockbuster Christmas is further exemplified by another study suggesting that it is overtaking Google as the first place customers go to search for products
- Flurry reports that time spent in Apps increased by 69% last year – with Messaging and Social growing by a staggering 394%
- It has taken Instagram Stories just four months to get to the same number of daily active users – 150 million – that Snapchat reached after four years.
COOL
- BMW have developed an AR ‘Product Visualiser’ – powered by Google’s Tango technology – that enables customers to get close to and customise selected BMWi models that appear before their eyes
- Beautifully put together and mightily impressive: Kickstarter’s 2016
- Uber Movement aims to help cities ‘grow in a way that works for everyone’.
DEEP READS
- A much-needed warning: how AI systems may pick up bias from human creators
- The ever-excellent Ben Evans on asking the wrong questions about what’s next
- If you have the brain space for any more predictions then this set of 10 is worth a look. It includes a strong focus on the responsibility on tech’s mega businesses.
