Some have speculated that perhaps Google is trying to let people preview apps before downloading. Or perhaps it is a way for Google to innovate when it comes to mobile ads. Perhaps it could be for Google to introduce a way to allow even low-powered, entry-level Android devices to play graphically intensive games through Google Play as long as the network is fast enough?
I watched a great interview with Martin Cooper, the inventor of the first cell phone, on Motherboard's YouTube channel, when something he said struck me.
"I am thinking of this question, the app. How useful is having a million apps. How does a person sort through a million apps and find the one that’s suitable for their needs. The concept of the app is wrong. If you really had good AI, you would have a servant, hopefully one that is smarter than you are. Figuring out what you need, and coming up with solutions. We call those solutions apps, but instead of us looking for the apps. the apps ought to find us."
It makes sense, no?
Now if I want to book a taxi, a popular choice these days would be to use an app. In Singapore alone, we have a couple of taxi companies (SMRT, ComfortDelgro, TransCab, Premier, Prime, and a smaller group of private "Yellow-Top" taxis), along with other popular alternatives like Uber, GrabTaxi, EasyTaxi, etc.
At this point in time, if you tried one of the apps of the available options, and get no response, you would have to try another app. If you want to ensure all options are open to you when it comes to getting a cab fast, you would need at least 5 different apps installed on your mobile device, and go through them one by one until you find something. Perhaps once you reach the fourth app, you have just missed a cab that became available with the first app, but someone else got to it first.
That does not sound like a pleasant experience at all does it? But now, what if there was an artificial intelligence that could come up with the solution for me instead, without needing to go through all that hassle?
Now this is perhaps where Google Now with Agawi's technology can come in. With the ability to stream apps smoothly, perhaps it could be used to help integrate apps in to Google Now search results.
If the thing I need is in the form of a service, like a taxi. Google Now can do the heavy lifting. Search through whatever taxi booking services are available locally, and pulls the info from whichever service/app has the nearest available taxi. Then it pushes the available alternatives for me to choose, and then streams that particular app's interface over to me for me to do my booking. Isn't that simpler than going through multiple apps?
Another example. Say you use Google Now to set up a calendar event of a movie date with your partner on Friday night in town. Google Now sees that, then shows you movies that are now playing in town, and ask you to choose your preferred movie. Then Google Now searches through different cinemas' app, find the options that meets your requirements the best. Once you've selected one, Google Now pulls from the booking system within that cinema's app, and then streams it to you so you can do a booking. Payment can be through Android Pay/Google Wallet, and you simply authenticate by your thumb print on your phone. Doesn't that sound simpler?
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I could be completely wrong though, and that Google is just planning to use Agawi's technology for playable ads, but it is still nice to dream...
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