I hate apps. I mean, not all of them, but most of them. 

I resent the way every business seems to think I want to establish a direct, specific, and totally exclusive relationship with them just to order a freaking pizza or check on the weekend show-times. This is not information I need a custom built program to tell me. I loathe having to scour my phone for which over-stuffed folder I shoved some app (that I didn't want to download in the first place) into seven months ago. I despise how every app tries to be cute in it's own special way. How some insist on playing some cheeky little animation before opening, how the menus and options change from app to app. I just want to check the hours a store is open.

I might be a grump.

But, you know what I love? Text. Pure, simple text. I like to type in something and get a response. Fortunately for me, I'm not alone. Text is catching on in a big way. 

Inspired by the popularity of SMS based UIs in the Eastern market, Western developers have been slowly breaking out of the "there's an app for that” mindset over the past few years. Among some circles, there has been a push to adopt a simpler, more elegant way for users to quickly access information than another bespoke app to clutter up your phone. 

The first major example of this trend breaking into the mainstream was SMS banking. Nearly every major financial institute has adopted some form of SMS banking to offer their customers. This is a simple system that lets you check your balance, transfer funds, and review your account history by tapping in a few simple commands as a text message. Nice and simple.

However, SMS banking only scratches the surface of texting as a graphic-less UI. While fast and easy to access, they tend to be clumsy in how they pull it off. Most of them rely on the user remembering simple key phrases like "BAL” and "WTHDRL” to prompt the system, rubbing up against the exact same problems as having to remember the specific ins and outs of each app's menu system. They also tend to be robotic and curt, with the bot on the other end instantly spiting back mechanical responses to prompts. It's an efficient interaction, but not exactly a pleasant one. 

Enter the new age of text bots. Services like Magic and Slack that are smoothing out the rough spots and making text an easy, natural way to conduct a variety of tasks without ever having to do anything more than tap a few lines. 

Slack, the ubiquitous team management software, allows you to do almost anything with simple chat commands. Want to edit your profile in Slack? Just say so. The text bot will ask you a few natural, breezy questions, and in seconds you're profile is changed without ever having to break out to a different page, edit a form, or even stop what you're doing. Clean and effortless with no excess clutter.

Magic is a little more ambitious. The little start-up (that was never supposed to happen) represents the huge potential of text-based systems as an easy and efficient way to do almost anything. A sort of digital assistant, Magic is an aggregator of aggregators, a service that combs other services to track down info. Type in a simple request like "I want a pizza” and Magic will kick back a few options to have one delivered effortlessly. 

Well, that's the idea anyway. Magic has it's share of problems. While it wants to "handle everything like magic” it often trips up over simple requests depending on how busy they are and fails to get things exactly right. However, what it is right now is less important that what is represents. If a 3rd party developer could almost accidentally stumbled into a service as impressive as Magic, what would happen if one of the big players like Apple or Amazon threw their weight behind the technology? 

We're likely to find out. Apple has been eying up text-based software companies for a few years now (coming close to acquiring Path back in 2015). While it hasn't found quite the right fit yet, there is clearly interest in development in that direction. Imagine you're iPhone being smart enough to naturally figure out important text question like "burritos in my area?” or "temperature tonight?” and being able to tell you where the nearest taco truck is and that you should probably wear a jacket in text? 

Personally, I can't wait for the day when I'm able to dump half the apps on my phone. The text revolution can't come soon enough.