Mobile Is the Hub of Our Own Contextual Cloud

For a number of years our mobile devices have been the primary access point to retrieve our personal information (messages, social, financial, etc); however, due to some recent advancements, our devices will soon become the hub of our own “Contextual Cloud”. Our devices will not only act as a means of accessing information, but also as a means of sharing information between our various personal and professional digital services.

App-to-App Communication

Recent advancements in inter-app communication will allow our devices to become integration points for the different digital services in our lives. For the first time, iOS8’s Extensibility framework will offer a number of ways for apps to share information and experiences with one another.

• Deep Linking - Enables linking from one app to a specific location in another app

• Sharing Extensions - Allows information to be passed from one app to another via a custom icon in iOS’s Share Sheet

• Interface Extensions - Enables a part of one app's user experience to be embedded within another app’s user experience

• Document Provider Extensions - Allows files to be stored outside of an app's sandbox, in a shareable location (either on device or in a preferred cloud)

• AirDrop - Enables data or files to be wirelessly sent from one device to another via peer-to-peer networking

Android offers similar capabilities with their Intents and Intent Filters framework. Developers now have a multitude of ways to pass information back and forth across the app ecosystem. This is turning the mobile device from a simple access point into a full fledged data integration hub.

Small Data vs. Big Data Transactions

While we have historically relied on Cloud or Big Data technologies to marshal data between different digital ecosystems, our handsets are becoming an alternative, more personal mechanism for accomplishing this task. This “small data” approach makes a lot more sense when dealing with sensitive information. Consider Apple’s recent partnership with the EMR giant, Epic. Many analysts are terming this a “Big Data” relationship, whereby the two giants will exchange millions of users' health information. But that’s not entirely correct. The integration is actually going to happen through iOS8 Extensions. Information will be exchanged between the Apple Health app and Epic’s MyChart app. In order for this data exchange to work, the user must install the MyChart app and explicitly grant permission for MyChart and Health to access the other's data. The user is in complete control of this data exchange (not Epic or Apple). When it comes to exchanging health information (or any sensitive information), the small data approach makes a lot more sense than the traditional Big Data 'all or nothing' approach.

Apps-as-a-Service

The characteristics of apps themselves are changing and are starting to behave less like traditional GUI applications and more like cloud-based services. Apps have the ability to run in the background, listening for specific data-driven events or changes in a user’s environment. They can serve up information proactively via push notifications or interactive widgets. This fundamentally changes the personal computing paradigm. Instead of a user asking the computer for information, the computer can now make a suggestion before the user even knows what to ask for. This is known as Contextual Computing.

Conscious Uncoupling

Another supporting movement for the Contextual Cloud is what we've cheekily coined, "Conscious Uncoupling". This is where previously monolithic applications are being broken out into purpose-driven utilities (i.e. Facebook breaking out Messenger and Paper apps from the core product; Google separating Drive, Docs and Sheets). Inter-app communication can make this uncoupling seamless for the end user. It also allows these apps to behave more like fine-grained Contextual Cloud services, with a specifically designed purpose and user experience.

Personal Implications

With the introduction of the Contextual Cloud paradigm we can start to rethink how we get things done on our phone. In the health and wellness space, apps like Health (or someone else's) could be an integration hub for all of our health and wellness data, showing a single view of our quantified self. I’m looking forward to seeing my FuelBand, RunKeeper and Withings scale data in one place. On the security side, we could have one app manage the entry of our passwords into every other app (can’t wait for AgileBits’ 1Password iOS8 update). Our credit card or banking app can handle entering credit/debit information for all mCommerce apps, allowing us to avoid storing and maintaining payment information in every merchant's cloud. If apps are designed correctly, and the right partnerships are established, our digital lives could get a whole lot simpler.

Work Implications

The biggest opportunity the Contextual Cloud represents is redefining how we get things done at work. Companies can start thinking of the phone as a personal integration point between all of a user’s various collaboration, document management, CRM, business intelligence and workforce enablement systems. Every company runs company-specific processes; the mobile device can be used as a contextual hub to keep those processes moving and enabling a simple exchange of information between disparate systems.

Imagine an enterprise offering individual utility apps that enable common tasks like customer lookups, retrieving a document, looking up a product, placing an order or running a report. Developers could then build simple apps around a specific process that knows how and when to call each of those utilities, and when to contextually notify a user that they need to take action. If a mobile strategy is designed correctly, we can fundamentally change the work day for the mobile workforce. We could speed up the supply chain, decrease the order-to-cash process, improve the point-of-service experience and empower and enable customers in ways never before considered.

The Contextual Cloud metaphor offers a new wave of opportunities for app developers and enterprises alike. In order to take advantage of all of the new capabilities in the mobile ecosystem, it’s important to look at a mobile strategy holistically and not on an app-by-app basis. The concept of “apps” is changing and user behaviors will be quick to follow suit.