ChatGPT is Now a SUPER APP

Open just dropped a bomb of new products and some of them have got me extremely excited. Apps inside of GBT is the one I'm particularly excited about. I think this is all web technologies. I don't think this is anything crazy. I think it's just TypeScript and you can build you build your app or you you format your app in such a way where it just looks nice inside of Jack GBT and you reveal a MCP server to the chat and it can work with it. And I really like this idea. I think I I do wonder where this is going to go because this are people going to use apps inside of chat GPT. I don't know. We used to say like um you know when the AI application uh sorry products like the rabbit and the pin things like that we think well our phone can do it. You know Marcus Brownley just you know he had this pin on him and he asked what car it was. it was a Tesla or something and in the time it took for this pin to get back he just snapped it with Google Glass and then he knew what it was on his phone. So we used to argue that AI not even AI sorry these AI products could be replaced by the phone. This is then saying well now everything is in the one app. So you don't even need to touch any of you don't even need any other apps on your phone. Well you probably do for this to actually work. I don't know whether this is done through the web or whether it's actually interfaces across to the app. I probably would assume it's the website because then that gets past Apple's nonsense. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Um which could, you know, you could bypass Apple's App Store 20% thing by allowing people to purchase subscriptions through Chat GBT. Maybe Chat GBT will take a cut. I don't know. But this is this is crazy. I have some feelings about this. So there are aspects of this that I like and there are aspects of this that I think are not new at all. So talking of what I like and I've been talking about this for quite some time that I don't like a chat interface. like I don't like reading that the long answers that chat GPT gives me and I find it fundamentally like un not fundamentally like but I would say I find it most of the time unreliable and not doing what I want in terms of the amount of text that I get from chat GPT. Sometimes it's too short, sometimes it's too long, and I find myself specifying how much I want from it. So, all of this to say, I personally don't like this chat that I get. I like talking to my phone and getting a UI. That's where we get into the good stuff. And what I've been saying that we need more UI in the examples that they showed. I don't like the the one from um what's it called? Like Spotify. I don't like the Spotify example. I feel like I wouldn't w want it to work that way inside of chat. I don't want to go to chat GPT and you know to a new chat and start like but you would not do that. That's not that's not what they're saying here. you you have Spotify in your app if you just want to open up and play some music of course. But as an example, I went to a concert and I took a photo of the set list and on the piece of paper on the stage sort of thing. I took that I posted that to chatbt. I said, "Can you go off and put together a playlist for all these songs?" Right? did it. Unfortunately, because of a lack of an app ecosystem or something like that, I had to get a text thing and I had to copy that into whatever blah blah blah. This could be it. It's it's convenience. It's bringing it to you into a conversation that you're already having. Maybe you're trying to travel plan. Maybe you're saying, "I'm going to Albania next month on a road trip. Um, where's the best place to go?" Blah, blah, blah. Okay, let's book a place with Zupla or wherever. You know, it's it's it's the con bringing the convenience to you whilst you're chat already chatting about kind of like project it. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah. No, I I don't think that's what they're trying to achieve. However, I do get your point that um Siri because it's it's a it's um a more higher order. I don't know whether that translates. It's more higher order like it's more controlled theoretically like that. But long story short, [ __ ] Apple aren't getting their ass into gear. Yeah. You know, this is like this is Chacht taking the power and be like, "Look, if you're not going to move, we're going to move." All right. And it would be great to have both options but like whilst you're chatting away you know you use chat GBT like in the middle of a conversation you you might have come to a conclusion or booking some you just say projects and then you can bring your thing I think um but it's a really good point because like I'm excited by it and I was like oh where can I bring what can I do with this where can I bring these apps in and I thought of a app that I'm building my friend and I'm like I think this would be really good use case for that. But I think your brain has got to understand why people are in chat GPT in the first place, which can be a a billion different reasons as to why. And it's up to you to figure out why people use it and why is your app relevant within the context of Chachi BT because again like you've just said, why would I go to ChachiBT to ask for this that and the other when I could just go to the app and get that this that and the other? you know, you it it's um that there'll be an analogy or or whatever somewhere and that you know you some shops are in train stations because that it make a bookshop is in a train station because most likely those people are in the train station because they're about to go on a long journey. Simple marketing. So, does your app is is someone in the world of chat GBTE like does it make sense that you're you're you're cross-pollinating those roles? You're putting yourself where you it's a marketing thing, right? You're putting yourself where your users are already and now I'm thinking probably not with my mates app. They're probably not in the world of branding um in JBT. probably maybe well we do that as well but I feel like Chad GPT they they have definitely a lot of users and I feel like they're trying to to try a few different things and see which one sticks they are trying like to see they have 800 million weekly I believe users crazy that's a lot of users that that's a lot of users um but I kind of like feel like it's really difficult for Chad GPD to win it. They are in a such a difficult uh position if you look at operating systems and AI uh being on an operating system level because we have Google and they are good with AI as well. So could go anyway. And and I think that you've just got to literally, as you say, throw [ __ ] at the wall, see what sticks because they we will find our place. And there'll be a whole number of goes back to that video I said about Dave Shapiro released about the economic, socioeconomic um impact of everything. Something might happen that contextualizes everyone just lives in ChachiT for the rest of their lives. I don't know. Point is they've just got you've just got to experiment. You just got to release and on the one hand I sympathize with the fatigue on AI all the things. On the other hand it's like you've got to experiment. So yeah. Yes. And this is also like it's been tested and it works in the east by the way much better than the west. Like if you look at China they have like this idea of super apps. They have WeChat and they have absolutely everything inside of that app. Absolutely everything. Absolutely everything. Well, done. Not intended, but I'll take checks in the mail for that one. You can uh you can use that one at the party tonight. So So it's absolutely filled with mini apps. Uh you can you can basically have your Uber and your pizza and pay your friends like a share of a meal or maybe just unlocked what chatbt are going for to be honest. So the there are like I've seen some videos I've watched some videos on this uh and I find it fascinating because this is about culture and also design like in eastern cultures apparently and I'm kind of like in the middle you know I'm from Middle East so it's um You're literally in the middle. Is that Is there a pun there with that? What is happening today? So, yes. So, uh apparently like in Japan and also like in in China, people care they they want to see all the information in one view. So, their websites are more crammed with every piece of information. And on the west it's much more like separating things from one another. That's why this idea of like super app has been tried many times in the west and it has never worked. Hasn't worked yet even like Facebook tried that. Facebook tried to do everything in one place and not really working. Uh ex you know Twitter like Elon Musk bought Twitter to specifically try this. He's still kind of trying to like merge everything. uh in one place but it hasn't Telegram is kind of like the best thing that has been it's not the super app but it has like a lot a [ __ ] ton of features. It's so featurerich and it has like a lot of users I believe like over a billion and it's also popular in the west as well. So I don't know if because of that culture reason if uh open AI the idea of like a super app could um could be successful because that there is also culture uh incompatibility with it but we'll see I don't love the idea I don't I don't Yeah but if it's good if I can if it can make my life easier in any way like I find a lot of times that I want to like get help in curating. I'm not a music guy. I don't listen to a lot of music, but if I want to do I want to get some help at curating like a playlist for me, you know. I do actually get uh I I ask my friends and like my siblings for like to send me songs because I feel like sometimes I feel like outdated. I'm like, "Okay, well, can you send me some good stuff?" I don't listen a to a lot of music. I'm more like podcast and anyway. So, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Oh, yeah. I was going to show you the the guidelines as well, the design guidelines. Oh, yeah. For the apps, right? For the apps. Yeah. So, there are brand guidelines, which is which should be quite interesting to get your teeth into. I'm just So, this is about how to you how to build a UI inside of a chat experience. Yeah. conversational experiences, intelligent, simple, responsive, accessible. I mean, you know, it's um it's quite a long article to be fair. Color, you know, how to use color, um typography, rules of thumb. So, spacing system as well. So, they they've they have thought about it. They're not um I think they would because you know, it's it's a micro app within an app. Do you know what I mean? So, you've got to really be efficient with space. It's like mobile design on steroids. This is part of a larger conversation on my show, Command AI, which we stream live every single week. We discuss the news and all things related to AI in the world of design and web. Catch us next week and join in the banter.