Before the smartphone and the boom in ICT, communicating with the world around us was, paradoxically, both less and more complicated. For the most part, life beyond our immediate surroundings was drip-fed to us at a steady lag – economic news, celebrity gossip, political ongoings, sports results, and everything in-between were released to us at specific predetermined times through broadcast or print publication dates. But while receiving information about the world was predictable (albeit slow), talking with the world was significantly more complicated, and relied, for the most part, on desktop computers, fax machines, long-distance calls, and old-fashioned postal correspondences.
But with the ubiquity and rise in smartphone use, communication has been democratised and accelerated. We may take it for granted, but we now live in a world where anyone can inform us of anything, no fax machine required. This has been beneficial on many fronts, but not all advances in the tech space produce pure net-positives – in this instance, greater communication does not equate to better communication.
We are all well aware of the dangers of misinformation and the ease of spreading outright untruths (making information, somehow, less trustworthy than before, when it was largely tied to reputable channels who could vouch for sources); but beyond the drop in the quality and veracity of sources, however, lies another more serious problem that detracts from communication’s effect on the flow of information – simply put, there is just too much of it.
Information bloat: we are overwhelmed by it!
Everywhere we look, someone has an opinion to peddle, a story to tell, a special offer, something to sell; others want to tell you about a policy update, the latest breaking news (not on the hour), a charitable plea, or pushing more and more content for you to devour. Keeping up with the information overload is not just as tiring as these forced rhymes, but counter-productive – our attention suffers when information resembles a carpet bomb and not a controlled explosion.
Nowhere is this more apparent than with the rise in the bespoke corporate app – every company, restaurant, or service seemingly (and understandably) demands your attention through a separate app which needs to (unfortunately) vie for space on your phone and for your attention. Yet, most of our phones end up looking like photo albums of unused icons, rather than a library of useful connections and utilities.
It is not difficult then to see why organizing professionals (the corporate term for professional “tidy-uppers”) such as Marie Kondo rose to prominence over the past decade and a half – when faced with too many choices and too much information, a clutter-free lifestyle becomes a matter of survival and coping with overwhelming choice. For most people, smartphones are a means of interfacing with the world on a day-to-day basis – facilitating payments, navigating roads, checking the weather, reading emails, killing time – turning them into extensions of ourselves. And if they are extensions of ourselves and our lives, why then do we allow them to be cluttered as well?
Centralised decentralisation
The average South African smartphone user prioritises only three apps. Just think about how much time you spend on your phone and which apps get the most screen time – it’s highly likely that, like most people, chat dominates your phone usage, followed by entertainment platforms such as instagram, X, TikTok, and other forms of media dissemination. No one really spends much time on the fancy bespoke corporate apps (banking institutions excluded).
And the trend is not only limited to corporate and tech trends: in Buddhism, the idea of “less is more” is integral to a happy, balanced, and fulfilled existence. The idea is so important that even temples and monasteries have, ironically, created their very own bespoke apps and artificial intelligence suites to promote the idea globally. This suggests that a shift in perception and thinking is sorely required, leaving us to ask “is there a better way?”
Some loyalty apps do work; however, these apps tend to be tied to the service attached to the company – such as discovery’s integrated banking, lifestyle, and insurance portal which relies on several data metrics pulled from everyday life (purchases, exercise, etc.), or the number of delivery service apps which reward its use (or loyalty) with additional benefits (such as discounts). But for those without a core service attached to their app, why even bother? In particular, organisations which are either small or which do not rely on frequent, repeat business (such as wedding photographers, dentists, mechanics, etc), a loyalty app makes no sense. But that does not mean throwing out the baby with the bathwater either.
The solution is at our fingertips
In general, solving problems in the modern world requires either “more” or “new.” But in this case, neither is needed. We already have a solution that can 1) simplify our digital interactions, 2) reduce our need for clutter and one more thing to rely on, 3) makes use of the most popular and widely-used platform in South Africa, and 4) gives companies the same tools and means of reaching repeat and once-off consumers as the bespoke app – Whatsapp Chatbots.
If you have a smartphone in South Africa, there is an overwhelming statistical certainty that you use Whatsapp (or even just have it installed). The chatbot method of interaction has other benefits as well: it gives companies the ability to focus on market segmentation and personalisation, with minimal to no ad-spend, all while moving products (which is especially useful for cycling through stock which needs to be sold before expiry).
The low barrier to interaction (no download needed) also encourages greater uptake than any app would. Embracing the elegant, the simple, the path of least resistance through chatbot usage is not just a survival tactic – it is the natural evolution of the user experience.
By Stefan Gerber, Co-founder at Tregter
