Chat is the new web browser

Few people picked up on one of the most interesting things that David Marcus, head of Facebook Messenger, said at TechCrunch Disrupt in September. In an offhanded comment, Marcus noted that users could book airline tickets and hotels through Hipmunk’s new chatbot and that the experience was “pretty close to having a native app, and definitely better than mobile web.”

Just think about that for a second. Facebook launched its chatbot platform in April — around the same time that we opened our Bot Shop. This generation of chatbots has only been around for about eight months, but in that short time they are already starting to surpass the mobile web. In some cases they may even be approaching the quality of mobile apps, which have enjoyed an eight-year head start.

If you pay attention to the lessons of history, this evolution would be no surprise. We’ve been saying for a while now that chat is the new browser and bots are the new websites. What happened in the early days of the internet showed how simple but low-friction solutions can surpass what came before them. Read full article.