Thank you David, this is a very thoughtful response. I think we actually agree on most points.

Conversational apps are a channel for companies to deliver a service that may be less crowded, (perhaps) easier to develop, potentially more viral, than apps. However, they will be a success only if they provide benefit for the user. Producer-side and Consumer-side must both have an interest.

We agree so far? I may be less pessimistic than you on whether they’ll actually deliver superior value to the user. My framework to analyse it is the cognitive load (the number of steps, the friction, the things to remember and process) to do a specific task. Here is a slideshare where I give some examples (starting slide 6).

For example (self-promotion) I just launched RemindMe today. It is a bot that lets you set reminders for your everyday tasks. I was a heavy user of calendar apps for that task, and using a Messenger bot is so much more convenient. Check it out!