As with so many things in the 2010s, Apple has
played a big part in driving forward what instant
messaging can be during this decade; it was
the Cupertino firm, for example, that developed
the videotelephony service FaceTime, its launch
coming in conjunction with iPhone 4 in 2010.
More recently, an intriguing relationship has
developed between Apple’s instant messaging
functionalities and the virtual assistant Siri,
with users now able to combine the assistant
with iMessage to send texts or even have
incoming texts read to them, using little more
than their voice.
A FUTURE THAT IS AS FASCINATING
AS THE PAST
While we’re on the subject of virtual assistants,
one of the most thought-provoking trends
in the union between technology and talk in
recent years has undoubtedly been the rise
of such intelligent agents as Microsoft’s
Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa. It is a
development that coincides with the ever-
more prominent use of instant messaging
for marketing and customer service, as
brands seek to engage, inspire and assist their
customers in a much more immediate way than
forcing them to wait on the phone for a human
staffer to get in touch with them.
The use of robots and artificial intelligence
(AI) for chatting and private messaging has
divided opinion, with some bemoaning the
popularization of ‘chatbots’ as yet another
sign of declining interaction between human
beings. Not everyone takes such a bleak
perspective, however, with UK-based digital
and social media consultant Sharon O’Dea