Mobile apps vs mobile bots

Bots which can communicate with users and conduct simple task basing of this conversation are sometimes described as those which replaces mobile apps. However, a lot of experts think that it is not the case now and will not be in the future. Among many reasons why the Conversational Economy (which means bots) will not rule the tech world are the fragmentation of development systems, inappropriete format of bots to many activities (e.g. graphic design), technology challenges and many more (you can read a lot about this topis here: http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/27/5-rea ... my-part-2/). What do you think about the battle between apps and bots? Which type of software will prevail?

Kate
Ready4S

Facebook has announced that just a few months after launching bots on Messenger, the app counts now over 11 000 bots. The Messenger bots will also be smarter: they will give suggested answers basing on the conversation, allow visual content like GIFs and other media or give users more control over bots' options. The bots are improving but do you think they will become a real breakthrough in mobile industry or a fad? (http://mashable.com/2016/07/01/facebook ... 6.4nEZRPqy)

Kate
Ready4S

Mobile bots can be divided into several categories:
- textual (conversational) bots - they are most common and very mentioned in connection to the growing number of a set of conversational bots in Facebook's Messenger,
- visual bots - navigated similarly to usual apps, e.g. Instant Apps,
- audio bots - to communicate with them user has to talk to them, an example can be Apple's Siri or Google's Now.
How can you divide bots in another way? Do you have any ideas?

Kate
Ready4S

Everytime more and more companies are using bots for their social media


Do you think it will be the next big thing?

It may be interesting to use bots for the most simple activities and bots seems to be a new kind of fashion. Companies such as Pizza Hut which first introduce bots to a certain brand will for sure gain some interest.
But I've read recently that bots still can't understand complex sentenced where the subject has to be understood from context. A new "Turing test" was even introduced for bots to find out if any of them can understand the written word in the way humans do. They don't. And I doubt if they will in the near future. What do you think? Will it be possible any time soon?

Kate
Ready4S

Some people say that bots are getting more and more popular among people in their everyday life, others – that they are still far away from getting to the everyday life. There are also those who think that bots will be first mass-used by enterprises and only then by consumers (read the article here: http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/26/chatb ... ise-first/). What do you think the future of bots will look like?

Kate
Ready4S