6 Mobile App Trends to Impact 2016

business2community.com

There is no denying that 2015 has been a huge year for mobile. Mobile has increasingly become a more important part of our everyday lives than ever before, and as any savvy marketer can tell you, your brand needs to be where its customers are. A quick look at a few statistics shows just how important mobile has become:

• In a study by Smart Insights earlier this year, it was found that in the United States, mobile digital media time is now much higher (51%)than desktop digital time (42%).
• Practically two-thirds (64%) of Americans now own a smartphone[Pew Internet Project].
• Of those in the United States with smartphones, 46% say they can’t live without their smartphone [Pew Research Center].

Clearly mobile has become deeply ingrained into our lives. Because of this, users have started demanding more from their experiences with mobile applications and websites. Much of what is driving the industry as we are moving into 2016 centers on creating more personal engagement with consumers. In 2016, brands must engage and interact with users on the user’s terms. Because of this context will be a key factor in 2016.

1. Consumer Focus

Rather than just marketing their products, businesses must now consider the complete experience a customer has with their brand. From initial contact to first sale and beyond, brands are evaluating the experience that customers have with their brand and working to improve that experience at multiple points along the path.

Creating a more consumer focused experience will be the goal of many businesses in 2016. Mobile has changed the way we shop and interact with information; businesses need to adjust their mobile apps and websites to reflect this shift in consumer behavior. Mobile apps and websites should be viewed from their place in the customer’s purchase path and their experience should cater to the customer’s needs. Don’t just assume you know what your customers are doing, track and analyze the relevant data. This is important, as you will need to create a user experience that caters to how your customer’s are actually using your application and how they would like to be using it if features are lacking.

However you end up creating your app to assist your customers, remember that you need to provide a cohesive experience with your brand that is unified across the multiple touch points. From your mobile app to your retail outlets to online banner ads, a seamless experience is a must.

2. Push Notifications

2016 will see improvement when it comes to push notification strategies. More and more this handy tool is becoming important when it not only comes to retaining customers but also for engaging them. In fact, push notifications are often how mobile customer interactions are started these days.For businesses, they should focus on developing intelligent push notification programs that are more personalized and offer improved contextual relevance.

Your businesses success in this area may be the difference between whether your application gets used by consumers or not.

3. Content Driven

Many marketers have found that the methods that used to work for them previously weren’t effective when used on mobile devices. Mobile marketing requires its own strategy. Consumers tend to be turned off by overly overt marketing on mobile devices so a more content driven approach has become very important to businesses.

A key factor in future mobile success will be your ability to personalize your mobile offerings and the content within. By creating an opt-in program to track data associated with how users use your app you will be able to start delivering content specific to that user’s interests. Many marketers have found that nothing improves their marketing programs like enhancing the relevance of their messaging.

Mobile makes this easier than ever to do as many users are more than willing to opt-in to data programs and provide demographic information to help improve their user experience. Combined with systems to analyze activity and adjust accordingly, truly powerful marketing can be done via the mobile devices that are in your customers’ hands much of the day.

4. Ad Targeting

As businesses improve their ability to create data-driven experiences for their customers, the targeting of ads will greatly improve and consequently become much more effective. To enhance the effectiveness of your ads you can rely on data from many sources. Once your customers have opted-in to you data program they will often provide a great deal of information regarding their preferences, as well as demographic information that can be quite useful.

By developing a data program you will be able to leverage their behavior within the app to refine their experience with ads that are more relevant. When you add to this the context of their location, your advertising programs can become exceptionally powerful.

Refinements need to be made in not only your creative, but also how you approach your creative when it will be displayed on mobile devices. Your mobile ad program needs to go beyond targeting to develop advertising that is carefully crafted for the mobile experience.

5. Deep Linking

Deep linking will increase as businesses look to have their content more discoverable.

Both Google and Apple have created opportunities using APIs to allow mobile app content to be found via mobile search. Businesses are able to deep link to app content from their mobile advertising programs or websites. Other apps can help enhance the consumer journey by deep linking into content in your app.

Users will see more and more app content in mobile searches and have the ability to see mobile-exclusive content that is not available for other devices. This will improve the opportunities a brand has to engage with customers and create conversions.

6. Mobile Video

About anywhere you look on mobile, video is there and because of this, businesses are eager to capitalize on this trend. According to a recent study by IAB, 58% of the people they surveyed confirmed that they watched videos on a daily basis from their mobile device. Clearly, quality video production intended for the small screen can be truly effective in reaching this sizable and growing audience.

This growth in mobile users’ interest is most likely the result of many consumers now owning high quality mobile devices. Remember, when it comes to mobile video, apps are clearly the consumers’ choice for viewing them. 48% of the respondents to IAB’s study confirmed they access video content via applications rather than visiting a mobile website. While only 18% indicated they would rather view video via mobile website.

2015: The Year that Push Notifications Grew Up

Push notifications are largely viewed as a great mobile marketing tactic, albeit one with great questions about their use and best practices. But are they having a significant impact? We decided to take a look at the state of push messaging in 2015 to find out. 

Over the course of the year, push messages continued to improve app user engagement and retention and companies increasingly took the path to personalization. This is largely due to the the shift away from broadcast marketing to an increased adoption of a segmented push strategy, which uses all the data a company has about a user to inform a smart marketing approach. While push messages showed improvement around respecting user data, a recent consumer survey we conducted revealed that 52% of app users are already finding push messages to be an “annoying distraction.” 

As more marketers turn to push notifications to communicate with users, the bar continues to rise for them to be hyper relevant (to avoid going the way of email spam). The good news: our data shows that apps are rising to match these higher expectations, and the results of their efforts are improving engagement and retention.

Push Messages Continue to Influence User Engagement

One of the most effective uses of push messages is to encourage inactive users to re-engage with an app. When crafted as a friendly reminder or helpful tip, push notifications can better position an app in the minds of users. 

The numbers are truly telling of just how effective push messages are in this pursuit for engagement. In 2015, users who enabled push notifications launched an app an average of 14.7 times per month, whereas users who did not only launched an app 5.4 times per month. In other words, users who opted in to push messages averaged 3x more app launches than those who opted out.  

This represents a 171% increase in app engagement. In 2014, the increase in engagement between users who opted in versus those who didn’t was 88%. Push messages serve an important role in an app’s user engagement, and there are no signs pointing to a decrease any time soon.

 

Build Trust Before Asking For Permission

Before an app can reap all the engagement benefits push messages have to offer, it must get users to agree to receive them. This has shown to be more difficult over the past year, as the average opt in rate for push messages in 2015 was 49.8%, down from 52% in 2014.

The decrease in push opt-ins may scare some, but it is not a reason to panic. Rather, this is an opportunity to find smarter ways to get users to agree to opt in. One place to start: build trust.

We’ve outlined before just how important it is to build trust with users before blasting them with push messages. One way to do so is to give a user time to explore the app before asking him/her to enable push messages. The chart below shows that the average push opt-in rate improved when users completed more sessions in an app. Users who complete between 1 and 3 sessions in an app have an average opt in rate of 35%. That rate doubles to 70% when users complete between 4 and 6 sessions in an app.

It doesn’t take too long to establish trust with users, but try to not ask for permission to enable push messages as soon as the app is downloaded. In the beginning, users know very little about the app and therefore will not have a good idea as to what the push messages will be telling them, or the value that will be delivered. 

Retention Continues to Thrive Thanks to Push Notifications

Push messages also help apps avoid one of their biggest fears: user churn. Utilizing push messages sets an app up to retain users both in the short and long terms. Push notifications remind users to continually return to an app, which helps keep it top of mind and strengthens relationships throughout the user lifecycle.

On average, 65% of users returned to an app in the 30 days after the app’s initial download, if they have push enabled. On the other hand, for users who did not have push enabled, only 19% of them returned the following month. By the third month, one third of users with push enabled were still using the app, compared to only 11% of users who do not receive push messages.

In 2015, retention for apps in which users enabled push increased throughout the first 3 months following download as compared to 2014; this suggests that app marketers used push messages more and the actual messages were more effective. 

 

Users Are Responding More to Push Messages

One metric app marketers use to measure the success of their push messages is the average click through rate. For 2015, the average for push messages was 10.2%, a two percentage point increase from 2014. 

Increasing click through rates supports the idea that push messages are becoming more relevant to users. But with every relevant push, the bar has risen for all push notifications to meet users’ needs. As a result, apps must continuously learn about their audiences in order to better serve them. 

Push Messages Increasing in Numbers and Intelligence

As push messages continued to benefit apps in more ways than one, app publishers sent them more and more. The number of push messages increased 64.25% since the end of  Q1 2015, to an average of 51 push messages sent per app. These messages are sent to various audiences of the app, so users are not receiving all 51 push messages.

The average number of push messages sent per app has steadily increased every quarter since the beginning of 2014. While that could be viewed as negative, our data actually shows that as the volume of messages has increased, marketers have also gotten smarter.  This can be seen below as segmented push messages have continued to increase while broadcast messages are starting to become a thing of the past. 

Since January, segmented push messages have increased from 53.51% to 65.73%, while broadcast messages have decreased from 46.49% to 34.27%. Marketers have taken notice that users are more likely to respond to a message with information that directly affects them, as compared to a message that was sent to all of the app’s users. This puts the pressure on apps to be doing everything they can to gain as much insight into their audiences as possible so that their marketers can better customize the messages.

Personalization Leads to Conversions

The importance of segmented versus broadcast messages can also be seen in view-through conversion rates (defined as users who view a push message and then convert). 

For view-through conversion rates, 1% of users converted from broadcast messages, while 3% converted from segmented messages. In other words, users are 3x more likely to complete a conversion event if the message incorporates some kind of personalization. 

A Marketer’s Job Is Never Done

Push messages have grown in effectiveness since last year, but there is always more that can be done. The onus is on us as marketers to make sure that push messages do not go the way of email and become spam. As app publishers send more push messages, capturing the attention of users will become increasingly difficult. Marketers will need to focus more on what is working over time by continuing to test different messages, shifting the focus from vanity metrics to those that signify actual ROI and always use audience insights as the root of the message. 

With that in mind, we’ll be kicking off 2016 with more data that taps into the current state of consumers’ views on push and reveals the data-driven marketing best practices for segmentation, personalization and measuring performance, as well as some benchmark KPI’s based on vertical platform and the size of the app. Stay tuned!

Make millennials fall in love with your mobile app!

customerthink.com

Millennials are glued to their smartphones, so make sure to reach them through your very own mobile app!

There are several prejudices that earlier generations have about millennials. They’ve been called lazy, entitled, sheltered, idealistic, and demanding. But over the years, we marketers have come to an understanding that all these are a result of how this generation was raised. If we dig deeper, we’ll find that millennials, for example, aren’t lazy; rather, they want to do things in a faster and easier way that can bring the same results. They’re idealism, on the other hand, allows them to actively pursue their passion and live their lives in a more meaningful way.

We could go on and on explaining each prejudice that other people hold against millennials, but the point here is that there’s probably a good reason behind those characteristics.

It’s important for marketers to truly understand this generation to create better marketing strategies for them. From a marketing standpoint, the millennial generation is composed of young professionals who have a powerful purchasing power. This tech-savvy generation is drawn to brands that make use of different channels, including smartphones, one of the devices they’re constantly glued to.

Having a mobile app for your business is therefore a great idea. Make sure that your business app possesses these five characteristics that will make it instantly more attractive for millennials.

1. Interactive

Millennials are all about socialization. They love interacting with new people no matter their age, interests, or culture. As part of your mobile marketing strategy, your brand’s smartphone app should be able to provide them opportunities to network with your other customers. This way, they can exchange ideas, discuss your brand, and seek advice from your previous customers.

2. Straightforward

Possibly because of their constant exposure to tech devices and the Internet, millennials have a short attention span. If you want to reach out to them through their mobile phones, opt for a light and straightforward mobile app which showcases practical functions. If it’s a shopping app, its user must be able to make a purchase quickly and without any hassle.

3. Simple but efficient

Millennials prefer no-nonsense apps that get things done. Designs must be simple, but don’t compromise performance. Make sure that all functions are complete and glitch-free. Once you find errors and bugs, quickly roll out an update to provide a smooth mobile experience for your millennial customers.

4. Easy to navigate

Links that lead nowhere, pages that are impossible to click away from, and buttons that take the user to the wrong place are just some of the things you must avoid at all costs. Make sure to have other people test the app before rolling it out to avoid these mistakes.

5. Social media-friendly

Mobile marketing has become almost synonymous to social media marketing. Finding ways to link your mobile app to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and other social sites will attract more millennials toward your brand.

10 mobile marketing themes to look out for in 2016

clickz.com

The digital landscape of 2015 was defined by a mobile-first approach to commerce and content consumption. As we enter 2016, marketers can expect the demand for such to increase.

With just a few weeks left in 2015, it’s time once again for my annual marketing predictions for 2016. Given that we all operate in an increasingly mobile-first world, it is only appropriate that this year we focus solely on mobile marketing.

1. Apps go mainstream

Last year, I correctly predicted app downloads will surpass Facebook friends and Twitter followers for most brands, and they continue to do so. In 2016, we will see more marketers looking to build greater utility and value in their mobile apps, opening the door for them to actively and aggressively promote their benefits across all channels.

Expect for brands' mobile apps to replace their social communities as the tag of choice on advertising, including TV. For many brands, the app will also become the go-to channel to reward and build loyalty, drive engagement, purchase products or services via e-commerce on mobile (also known as m-commerce), and manage billing and payments. The value proposition for apps across all verticals will continue to grow, as marketers increasingly make them the primary source for the independent shopper, travelling road warrior, and busy consumers looking to transact more efficiently.

Enhanced functionality such as indoor maps, real-time recommendations based on location, keyless room entry, rewards management and redemption, and payments will become seamlessly integrated into apps - increasing engagement and value for the average consumer in ways never before imaginable.

2. Mobile budgets and resources get serious

Mobile’s influence and impact on this year’s holiday shopping season will usher in an accelerated shift in focus toward mobile. According to Forrester Research, mobile is predicted to be the fastest growing channel among all digital channels (38 percent CAGR), so look for an increasing number of brands to create mobile BHAGs – which stands for big, hairy, audacious goals.

Evidence of transformation started in 2014, when Hilton announced it would invest $500 million in mobile technologies. Others across all verticals will follow Hilton’s lead in the coming months ahead.

3. Indoor location and customer movements rise in importance

Adoption of beacons and their next in line technology will continue to accelerate. A Google Eddystone study found 85 percent of the top 100 retailers are slated to adopt beacon technology by the end of 2016.

Additionally, beacons will directly influence over $4 billion worth of U.S. retail sales and is expected to climb tenfold in 2016. 

Next up: New WiFi sensor-based RF technology may allow handsets to be located indoors between one and two meters. This development coupled with the ability to determine location, movements, and proximity, opens up compelling new opportunities for marketers. Tied to retailer planograms and maps, apps will equip users with a visual of each store along with their shopping cart, wish list, and special item locations "pinned" for faster, easier, more relevant shopping.

4. The emergence of mobile-informed predictive decisions and machine learning

Recognizing the growing importance of location and movement data plays in predicting the next best offer; brands will look to leverage mobile signals to sharpen targeting and create look-alike models to reach similar consumers in other digital channels with hyper-relevant offers. The addition of machine learning allows big data to be further optimized over time, giving marketers the beginnings of a new "sense and respond" marketing automation capability.

5. Personalization scales

Data and real-time technologies allow marketers to finally build highly personalized messages at scale. Next generation platforms allow marketers to take in disparate data sources, combine them with real-time mobile signals - including location and movements - and trigger highly personalized messaging in the mobile moment. This provides consumers with what they need, when they need it, in the appropriate context.

6. Content optimization finds its place in the tech stack

Content management and optimization across channels becomes a required component of any tech stack. While many marketers look to content as a critical component of their strategy, more often than not, brands lack the ability to effectively and efficiently optimize and distribute this content across channels. This is particularly true with mobile, given some of its limitations are more critical because of our mobile-first world. 2016 will be the year in which mobile content moves from edges of the tech stack to a central component of it.

7. M-commerce acceleration continues

2015 is likely to be known as the year mobile commerce finally became meaningful. Earlier this year, eMarketer predicted m-commerce sales would increase by 32 percent, far faster than e-commerce overall.

There seems to be no end in sight, as consumers armed with their smartphones increasingly look to browse, compare, and order directly from their device. This trend, combined with the expanding number of mobile payment options and recently upgraded payment terminals to accept them, will continue to pave the way for m-commerce in the years ahead.

8. Customer journey marketing becomes more multichannel, location-aware and real-time

By embracing mobile, location, and movements, marketers will get serious about crafting hyper-relevant messaging across the customer journey, which spans the physical and the digital. On the physical front, marketers have more tools at their disposal to target customers on the pre-visit via geo-fencing, during a visit through interactions with beacons, and post-visit with multichannel retargeting. Additionally, advancements in real-time mobile messaging enable orchestration with other channels including email, display, and even direct mail.

9. Privacy and ad blocking require new approaches

Increased concerns around ad blocking and privacy sensitivity will mean marketers will have to rethink their traditional approaches. The key to success here will be mastering identity management with consumer preferences and controls.

While notice, choice, access, and control remain the key pillars, marketers will need to evolve marketing efforts to be more holistic, orchestrated, and omnichannel in order to deliver against expressed consumer preferences and drive desired outcomes. Next year, we can expect more privacy centers to be enhanced with greater access and channel controls and more marketing controls – such as frequency caps - in platforms.

10. Micro-moments give way to magic moments

It’s an old cliché – the right message, at the right time, in the right place or on the right channel. Although many brands have quickly realized the enormous opportunity and benefits of helping consumers in their moment of need, we will soon need to do better. With the proliferation of IoT devices and signals as well as increasing privacy concerns and ad blocking, delivering value in those moments has never been more difficult.

For marketers, the risk of a messaging overload is very real and will be upon us before we know it. Therefore, marketers must move beyond the concept of micro-moments to quickly to find "magic moments"; that optimal time across thousands of potential micro-moments to not only be seen, but to also be heard.

So You Have an App… What Now? Part II

financemagnates.com
The three elements to consider are SEO, paid traffic, and app store optimization

In part I we looked at getting ready for mobile marketing. In this part we will concentrate on mobile acquisition. In any business, one of the ingredients to making larger profits is paying less. In marketing terms, this is eCPA (effect Cost per Acquisition). Remember that the CTAs are slightly different as the first step is to get the user to download the app and then register.

There are three considerations for mobile acquisition –search, paid traffic (media/affiliates), and the app store.

Search Engine Optimization

Let’s start with the easiest – SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or organic traffic from search engines. As with online, someone who has taken the time to search for you or your product is more likely to convert and the relative costs are much lower. The chance of attracting this lucrative user is based on your ranking in the search engine and therefore you need to work on your rank for both desktop and mobile. We have already seen that Google looks favorably on mobile friendly sites (at least for its mobile results). The basis of good ranking is a clean strategy of quality engaging relevant content and building brand authority. Online and mobile play by the same rules.

Paid Traffic

When we deal with paid advertising and affiliates we can also include paid Google campaigns. The first step is deciding which campaigns drive traffic to the website and which to the app store. The best way to get started with media is to bring in a specialist in mobile marketing. This can be done in-house or outsourced to a specializing agency. Campaign management is very different from online in many respects. For example, there are unique channels like in-app video advertisements which point directly to the app stores. There are also specialist sites and affiliates. Like all marketing, it comes down to analysis and ongoing optimization. If you apply an 80/20 rule, then 80% should go to campaigns you are confident with and 20% allocated for finding new channels or creatives.

App Store Optimization

Particular to mobile is App Store Optimization (ASO). ASO shares many traits with SEO with additional considerations. First piece of knowledge required is that the Play store has better search facilities than Apple’s App Store. Correct keyword tagging is essential. The second piece of knowledge is that a vast majority of app discovery happens with the app stores; according to a Forrester report 63% of apps are discovered by app store searches. ASO is about making your product discoverable via keywords, targeting similar products and ranking. Other than the title you give the product and keywords, the other main factors are number of downloads and ratings and reviews. This is why your apps keep asking for a rating.

For successful marketing you will need to blend your strategy. Paid advertising brings the quickest results but at a high cost with lower conversion. SEO and ASO take more time but bring better quality and lower costs.

Once you can acquire, you need to convert and retain, which we will discuss in part III.

4 analytics your app needs in order to thrive

imediaconnection.com

"Metrics" used to be the favored buzzword of the marketing world; now, "analytics" is the craze. Unlike some trends, however, analytics aren't flashy or ephemeral. They're here to stay because they're doing more than just telling decision-makers the "what" -- they're also helping them better understand the "why."

After all, launching a native mobile app is a big investment, so you want to make sure you're driving ROI. To ensure you're maximizing your app's potential and capitalizing on opportunities, it's imperative to constantly measure its health through analytics.

Good analytics don't just tell you a number of downloads; they identify your most loyal customers and how they're interacting with your app. They explain where your users come from, what actions they took, and who the most valuable ones are (based on conversions or actions taken). They show how much people are spending, what types of products they're buying, which products they're looking at but not buying, and where drop-offs occur in the conversion funnel.

How to formulate an analytical framework

Every brand measures metrics in some way, but in order to really dig deep into meaningful analytics, you have to be strategic about which you use and how you go about using them.

If your brand would benefit from a more robust approach, data management platforms like mParticle or Segment would be great options. These act as layers for all data needs moving forward and allow you to be flexible with the tools that you choose -- all of your events are hosted in one place with one SDK. These options also support many marketing utilities like push vendors, attribution vendors, and email marketing tools.

Also consider attribution tools. These help to understand where users are coming from. For a more bare-bones approach, behavioral analytics tools like Google Analytics or Flurry are great places to start. Other tools under the behavioral analytics umbrella include Amplitude, Mixpanel, and Kissmetrics. This approach will only give you insight into in-app behavior, though, so you may have to supplement it with attribution tools like TUNE, AppsFlyer, or Adjust.

Regardless of what you choose, you want to build a framework that interprets the individual aspects of your app and a big-picture, holistic view.

Here are the four main analytical areas to focus on:

Acquisition: Who are your users, and where do they come from?These analytics should not only show how you're acquiring users, but also how their activation rates differ based on referral location, demographic data, and cross-platform brand interaction. The more you know about how you attract the attention of customers, the more you can make sure you're targeting the right people (and can repeat your approach in the future).

Engagement: Once a user is in the app, what does he or she do?
Engagement analytics should give a clear view into UX. Once users visit the app, what actions do they take? Do they interact with your features the way you want them to, or are they navigating the gap in roundabout ways? By continually mapping user action and comparing it to your intent, you'll have a clear line of sight into how users are engaging with your app. Depending on what your analytics show you, it may be time to revamp your UX to make it easier for them to answer your call-to-action.

Conversion: Are users actually buying what you're selling?
Your definition of a conversion will naturally vary based on your industry, customer base, organizational goals, and calls-to-action. Whether it's a purchase, a sign-up, or a login, it's important that you don't just take conversions at face value. Instead, take a deeper analytical dive into what actually causes a conversion and who is ultimately converting. If users continually jump ship just a step or two from conversion, you need to know why this is happening.

Retention: Is your app a one-hit wonder?
If people use your app once or twice and never come back, the problem is simple: You're not providing enough value. Analytics help identify holes in the experience you provide, helping convince users from their first sessions that your app is the best way to interact with your brand. For example, if you're an online clothes retailer, make the app so user-friendly that even the most optimized mobile site couldn't compare to its seamless user experience. If you provide strategic and authentic value, customers will naturally build loyalty to your brand and your app.

Analytics may be the marketing vocabulary word du jour, but it's for good reason: They pack a powerful punch and lend invaluable insights into the inner workings of your app. Making your data work for you starts with understanding that big picture.

We Like It Like App

multichannel.com

Mobile Software Has Changed Our TV Viewing, but It's Only the Beginning.

As this week’s cover story and four-page chart by Jeff Baumgartner point out — and you all probably know already 

— more and more of our “television” consumption is being done via apps instead of via cable or satellite or over the air.

We use them on our mobile devices and on our Internet-connected TV sets. We use them to divorce ourselves from pay TV bundles and to add streaming services into the TV mix. Apps also allow us to enjoy our pay TV services outside the home or in another room, on the smartphone or tablet — for example, by making it possible to watch DVR-recorded shows remotely.

They are part of what makes it so difficult to measure how many people are watching what programs and when, a topic of intense interest to programmers who want to make sure they’re making as much ad revenue as possible.

They do a lot. And they are such a part of our TV viewing that it’s easy to forget they are fairly new, and still evolving.

Jeff ’s story points to some of the continuing improvements — making it easier to sign on and stay signed on; letting you watch other content libraries, such as video-on-demand shows; letting you search by voice command.

“This thing is only just beginning,” Matt Nelson, marketing head for app-platform developer You.i TV, said during a panel at the TV of Tomorrow conference in New York last week. He and others on the panel had been talking about how they were trying to make apps simpler and more like alwayson TV. When you open the Crackle streaming app on Roku, for example, “the video just starts playing when you enter the interface,” he said, and not necessarily at the beginning of a show but “at a really interesting part of the video.”

Clark Pierce, senior vice president of TV Everywhere at Fox Sports, talked about the company first wanting the Fox Sports Go app to open up with lots of stats and graphs and on-demand video options. “Very close to launch, we made a very big pivot and we just focused on the live streaming of video.” Now, he said, a focus is on reducing the delay between what you see from a live event on, say, FS1 and what you see on the app.

Helge Hoibraaten, CEO of Norwegian OTT vendor Vimond, showed an image of the Reuters TV app, which delivers personalized news programs. “Why do I love this? Because it’s so simple. You just open the app, and it hits you with the full-screen TV experience that is guessing what you want to see, and it’s up to date. You don’t have to click anything.”

What we like now, it seems, is only going to keep getting better.