These small virtual assistants grow up day by day, make talk about them, and mobile apps could disappear.
 
Bots, chatbot, or chatterbot, are small smart software capable of discussing with us and of answering our questions. These softwares are hidden in an interface of messaging or a chat (hence names “chatbot” or “chatterbot”). The most famous are Siri and Cortana. But they are limited bots. Nothing to do with those of tomorrow.
Bots will be found (or already found for some countries) in mobile messaging. Instant messaging like Messenger, or WhatsApp are going to become real service platforms. In Asia, messaging like WeChat (China) or Line (Japan) already allow their users to do everything or almost via their instant messaging : book a taxi, buy products and pay them, discuss with a customer service…
The example of Line. Line was founded in 2011 by NHN Japan (Naver). In 2015, Line had 600 million users, who are mostly in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and India. But Line is also present in Europe. Especially in Spain with 18 million users.  In 2015, Line started a taxi booking service in Tokyo via its instant messaging. What competes with Uber. Also in Thailand, Line has introduced in its instant messaging a streaming service for music.
Bots can, or will can, do all that our mobile apps do. All needs gather in one and only one application. These personal assistants, execute the requested tasks or allows access to  a service such as order a pizza, book a hotel or a table at the restaurant, buy a book on Amazon, pay on-line, and even propose us movies according to our tastes.  
In this way, it will become useless to have a different app for each need. Everything will be possible, just by speaking with a bot.
 

A propos de Cécilia G.