Mobile apps have been continually progressing for some years and the power of mobile applications remains very strong. But the introduction of the chatbots means you can chat or talk to them as to a close friend. The main difference between a chatbot and a mobile app is its user interface. And this is the reason, why the bots are most likely to replace the applications in the nearest future. The development of chatbots is considered to be a new evolution point of the high-tech world. Chatbots represent interactive services that provide a conversational experience. The main feature of the bot is to understand the user and to reply instantly or make an appropriate action by the request. So, the bot provides the solutions to different tasks using the simple UX models.

Conversational interface

The simple chat window is all you need to interact with your new digital friend. If you previously needed a separate application for ordering pizza, buying clothes, tracking the weather and reading the latest news, now you can perform all these actions without leaving the chat window. From the functional standpoint, chatbots should be able to issue voice and text commands and receive responses in the form of a text in simple user interfaces. While most people consider chatbots text-only interfaces, we are already seeing the first iterations of simple UX models that can be used in bots solutions. The interactions are at the forefront of UX and UI design.

Bot interactions

Conversational UI is familiar to every user from the messaging services and apps. But the innovations in bot development could make the customer experience evolve using the interactions. The user starts the conversation with the bot by typing and sending it a message, as he would do it with a friend or with a personal assistant. The bot recognises his query and looks for the best solution for it.

Chatbots in mobile apps

The main objective of UX is to make the bot work naturally. It must interact like a real human being, but a bit smarter and always ready to help. Let the bot take some time to “think” about the correct solution for the user’s query. It can indicate whether it is working on the solution by displaying reaction icon.

Chatbots can improve user experience and user interface

The design of the conversational interfaces is completely different from UI and UX design of the applications. Bots use simplified interfaces but operate some sort artificial intelligence, that allows them to interact with the user just like a real person. The conversational UI of the bots allows users to interact with businesses like they would with a person. This allows businesses to build trustworthy relationships with their clients and to improve their services.

In conclusion, we can say that bots are not going to replace mobile apps. But their emergence is making relevant attempts to become a good complement to the human and bot interaction.

Jake Davis is a design director at Pocket App.

See also: Are chatbots now a business necessity?