Beyond Texting: Messaging Apps are the Portals to Brand-Consumer Connect

Messaging apps daily use is almost 5 times higher than the average for all apps that a user accesses on a smartphone, according to a report by Flurry. People send 30 billion messages on WhatsApp alone, which is incredibly active with more than 500 million monthly active users! Messaging apps are engagement portals to communicate, connect, inform or endorse. Moving beyond the medium of connection between friends to friends, individuals to groups or fans, users to information; these apps are turning to be valuable platforms for users to search, discover and interact with brands, businesses and much more. Snapchat is moving fast on becoming a media platform, last year we saw new features like Snapchat Discover that delivers news stories and videos, building on a revenue model and at the same time richer content focus that is appealing to mobile consumers. In near future, Facebook’s Messenger app would be capable of sending content beyond text. LINE, one of the most popular apps in the Asian continent is broadening out into extra services where brands, media and online services can promote new information, offering new opportunities for businesses to communicate with their customers. The list goes on. Long story short, messaging apps have moved much ahead from being traditional texting apps to being a growing and profitable platform for user engagement and brand consumer connect. Mary Meeker’s 2015 internet Trend report on messaging platform services says it all, from stickers, games, taxi services to user stories, there’s much more going on and in plans for almost all messaging platforms. Here’s a slide from the 2015 Internet Trend report:

Unravelling the Power of Conversational Intent

Fueled by the explosive growth, brands, publishers and celebrities have the attention of the messaging apps and are willing to invest and delve deeper to engage with their audiences. However a different strategy is required to gain consumer acceptance and avoid annoyance. Non-intrusive consumer engagement on messaging apps can be successful only if brands and marketers can tailor their messages to be:

Contextually relevant
Respect consumer preferences, and
Deliver in the exact moment of need

With new messaging apps popping up and gaining popularity every year, there’s also a compelling need to have cross-app solutions. Delivering with simplicity, in complete context and in the immediacy of the moment, Xploree Search and Discovery platform offers the best solution, since a keyboard app has the power to be cross-app and cross-platform. What’s more, Xploree has the unmatched power to engage users in the ‘mobile interlude’, the few moments where a user waits for another to respond during a conversation. For example, during a conversation between two friends there are those moments when they need to decide on a place to meet. Getting recommendations during the chat session and with added incentives like discounts, location information and more, the decision comes easy. No doubt that messaging apps are opening up new doors to such mobile interlude opportunities and discovery becomes more meaningful when it at sync with the conversational intent. Xploree comes to the mobile messaging ecosystem at the right time with the right intent to engage and serve users during their conversations on messaging apps. The two most powerful success elements that makes Xploree stand out is: intelligent hyper-contextual relevance as users discover brand offers and information and the much needed non-intrusive, user-initiated access to information on mobile. At the end of the day, it pays to be in-context and to be of assistance to the users in their mobile moments. It’s just a matter of time how and when brands and services tap into the power of conversational intent. We thank all our partners who have joined us in the journey to delight users with simplicity, hyper-context and reaching out to them in their exact moment of need, all the while giving the users complete control on how and when they access the offers and information.