It just doesn’t seem to make any business sense to turn an app into an API invisible to the user. A visible, established brand is a "moat" as they say. Without user-facing brandable software you’re basically nothing. Only techies are interested or even understand the concept of a service that only exists as an API.

I also think you’re way overestimating (based on one datapoint?) the number of people who want to use their devices from within an LLM chat app, even if at some point they should become aware of the idea.

▲ booty 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

    overestimating (based on one datapoint?) the number of 
    people who want to use their devices from within an LLM 
    chat app,

I don't know about that. "Apps" were a step forward in many ways, but when spending time with older and/or non-technical users they are pretty overwhelmed by the sheer number of apps.

I think they would really like to have one unified, plain-language interface.

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aurareturn 14 hours ago | parent [-]

I agree with you. That might be why people only use a few apps even if they download 100. It's just really hard to learn the user interface of every single app.

Nice username btw.

	▲	booty 12 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Non-technical users also get REALLY confused/upset about routine app updates that change the UX in any way whatsoever. They learn these apps differently than "we" do. They (again, particularly older users who didn't grow up with GUIs) don't understand GUI paradigms, so they compensate by memorizing... even a small change to their memorized flow is highly disruptive because they cannot reason about how to get back onto the happy path. (It's like the old, pre-GPS-navigation days when you went on a road trip with a stack of printed out directions from MapQuest. It was great, until you missed a turn and had no idea how to get back on track...) Ideally, yeah, non-technical users could just invest a little time learning common UX paradigms. But a lot of people just won't. And really, GUIs were just a means to an end anyway. Maybe we just need to meet them where they're at with a more unified, naturalistic interface. The word "maybe" is of course doing a lot of work.

▲ aurareturn 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If there is a demand for it, people will invent businesses to fill that demand even if a pre-AI company like Spotify is resistant to the change.

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andsoitis 17 hours ago | parent [-]

> If there is a demand for it, people will invent businesses to fill that demand even if a pre-AI company like Spotify is resistant to the change.

Only if structurally it makes sense. There's demand for many many things on this planet without a business model that would satisfy that demand.

	▲	aurareturn 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The world is moving towards this whether legacy businesses want to or not. I'm sure the internet was bad for Yellow Pages' phone book business and Yelp ate their lunch regardless.