No more (mobile) apps?

The ChatGPT mobile app is now the most used app on my phone. I use the voice and note prompts on the go for many things. Some of the recent use cases include:

• Taking pictures of foreign menus and ranking the foods by the most nutritious

• Translation through camera/photos

• Providing background info during meetings

• Asking for the closest restaurants, public transportation

• Route planning and whether it’s more efficient to walk or cab

• A thread just for ideas that I want to save

• Fact-checking while talking with friends

• Sightseeing tips

• Questions about pharmacy/medicine while traveling

• Travel stuff, eg. “what’s within 20 mins walking distance to where I am now”

• Many more

It’s now my de-facto companion app.

I wonder, once these large language models (LLMs) have access to our personal info on Google, Apple, Social Media, etc, and start acting on it and doing stuff, do we even need mobile apps anymore?

Apps are just a means to an end. A user interface (UI) to help us deliver specific user experiences. For the most part, apps provide a one-to-one solution. But LLMs with voice/note prompts, with many agents running in the background, can provide one-to-many solutions. A new mobile operating system might be needed. Perhaps in the future, we'll all be talking to (a, hopefully, benevolent version of) Hal after all.

A good article from The Economist: So long iPhone. Generative AI needs a new device

My phone usage: