SXSW: 4 Best Practices to Make Bots the Next Big User Interface

People spend more and more time on their smartphones, but with such a limited set of apps that it's becoming harder and harder for newcomers to reach them. Chatbots are the solution, two proponents told a crowded ballroom at SXSW on Saturday, day two of the conference. That's because they play out on one of the entrenched sets of apps that people already chronically use, they argued: messaging apps. "We believe that conversations will become the new user interface," said Laura Newton, a product manager at the youth-oriented messaging app Kik. Consumers don't know what to expect from bots, but are easily disappointed.