How Smart Surfaces Can Change The Future Of Smartphone Interaction

Surfaces on phones -- such as the lock screen, home screen, and app drawers -- become ambient, always-on screens capable of getting things done for users without the need to open apps.

By Rohan Choudhary

In today’s digital era, smartphones are undoubtedly marvels of modern technology, offering immense capabilities and connectivity. Yet, despite their increasing power, they fall short in addressing a significant issue faced by users worldwide, app and content fatigue. This occurs when users become overwhelmed by the multitude of apps and notifications vying for their attention.   

In fact, a recent BCG report highlighted the extent of this issue, surveying over 1,000 users and finding that 50 per cent of users pick up their phones merely out of habit, encountering an average of 80 apps. This often leads to distractions and cognitive overload from constant notifications and app nudges, diverting users from their original intent. The same users expressed a growing preference for a 'surface' or 'screen' that presents relevant information without requiring to search for it. According to BCG, these surfaces have the potential to become AI-powered engines that drive interaction between users and apps, offering a rich, dynamic screen experience from the start of a user’s phone journey.  

Potential Of AI-Enabled Surfaces  

In its current form, 'surfaces' are simply serving as conduits to end apps without much intelligence. Surfaces on phones -- such as the lock screen, home screen, and app drawers -- become ambient, always-on screens capable of getting things done for users without the need to open apps. 

However, with a growing need for intuitive surfaces, companies are attempting to create a revolutionary ‘app-less’ era, where users can accomplish a lot on their phones without downloading and navigating multiple apps. Surfaces, because of their always on nature, can serve as a bedrock for delivering these AI experiences. These ‘surfaces’, when enabled with AI, have the potential to transform conventional smartphones to meet the varying needs of consumers. While this idea might have existed in some form, handling the complexity and delivering an experience worthy of a surface is a complex problem, even if one has access to the entire stack -- hardware and software. Only a handful of companies have ventured in this area One such company is Glance, which has partnered with handset manufacturers and revolutionised the lock screen by providing personalised and relevant updates, making each moment meaningful for the user.  

AI-Powered Surfaces: Addressing Every Consumer Need 

With AI-powered ‘surfaces’, smartphones become 'smart' in the truest sense -- it computes through the power of surfaces to address a variety of consumers’ low and high intent-driven daily moments. However, to achieve this, it is crucial to understand user journeys, and then leverage technologies such as AI to create delight and provide a 10x richer user experience.  

Research indicates that currently there are two broad user journeys: high intent-driven and low intent-driven. In the former, AI-powered surfaces can get things done for users via ‘AI Experts’ reimagining traditional assistant experiences. Currently, these experiences are restricted to direct searches, such as finding tickets from one destination to another. However, in their new form, AI Experts can go beyond, solving ambiguous problems such as trip planning, meal planning, learning languages, and even deciding what to wear. Several attempts have been made to create this sort of ‘AI Expert’ on surfaces, including innovations like Brain.AI, Rabbit-tech (a new device category), and the recent multi-modal models such as GPT-4o. 

For a ‘low intent-driven' user journey, AI-powered prompts on the lock screen proactively provide updates and information based on the time of day and trending topics on the internet, covering news, sports, games, utility apps, and more. These prompts can also augment the ‘AI Expert’ when needed, bringing the most relevant information to the user at the right time. 

For example, imagine a user planning a trip to San Francisco. The AI Expert can assist in planning the trip, while the prompts can provide timely updates such as flight price drops, booking cabs upon arrival, and finding the right attire for the trip. These prompts ensure users receive timely updates and augmented information for various needs. 

Forrester, a global research and advisory firm, has highlighted in their recent report that users are increasingly gravitating towards “Anticipatory Experiences (AX)”, which are characterised as highly intuitive, invisible, and immersive.  AI-driven surfaces can powerfully align with this trend, offering experiences that anticipate a user’s needs and provide relevant information without requiring explicit requests or searches.  

In conclusion, as technology and user behaviour continue to advance, the importance of surfaces will only grow, making them essential for leveraging the full potential of AI in smartphones. Therefore, by embracing this innovation, OEMs can ensure their devices remain at the forefront of technological advancement, providing users with the seamless, intuitive experiences they crave. 

(The author is SVP and GM of Glance Lock Screen and AI Initiatives) 

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