From Apple Watch to WhatsApp: Beyond the Bubble-Wrap

Pratima H

LOS ANGELES, USA: POP! That’s the sound that happens when a kernel of corn hugs heat, when a cork flies off the embrace of a fizzy bottle, when a balloon rubs a needle the wrong way, when a mind stands captive to a boring conversation or movie, when a stubborn alarm stirs you up from a long dream, when headlong and reckless hype-phases around a hot segment totter to an end (hey, we didn’t say sub-prime real estate or dot-com era – you thought of it) and of course, ‘Pop’ is the melody you relish when you are opening a new parcel and playing with that universally-worshipped bubble wrapping around it.

But bubbles can burst in not so musical ways too when some spavined desktop application is draped forcefully around a mobile form factor. Crack, Snap, Boom! That’s guaranteed when someone is trying to wean people away from a consumer-app habit to another souped-up enterprise version. Dangers of a rasping version of that ‘pop’ sound always lurk around for half-baked products and half-laced interfaces. Ram Menon-CEO & Founder, Avaamo seems to know these risks well and he dares to poke his dartboards at the centre of some crucial questions like-  ‘where is the app ultimately going’, ‘what is a hangover cure’, ‘why do interaction models mean so much’ or ‘Why an enterprise app to do what WhatsApp is probably doing well’ or ‘What makes an app fit well around a wrist’? Consequentially, one bubble after another, we peel off layers to untie an app that, in his words, is ‘quintessentially enterprise and incredibly simple’.

Questions. Another species that make that same sound. Let’s get 'em popping.

Tell us something about the App you are bringing (to a WhatsApp-hypnotized market) and why?

It is a secure business messaging mobile app for the enterprise and it is delightfully simple but also incorporates governance, security and administration features. We aim to reinvent the way we communicate at work in today's mobile first world and offer software as a service (SaaS) for the development and delivery of mobile applications for enterprises and with the app we want to address the gaps in the security and reliability of enterprise data that was being shared extensively via mobile platforms.

What do you mean exactly when you say the app is ‘delightfully simple’? And why is this any different from folks like Lync, Flock, Cotap, IBM Sametime, Hypechat, Officechat, Pie and of course- WhatsApp for enterprises?

I have spent lots of years in enterprise space with a fairly strong ring-side view of what enterprises need and lack. During one of my earlier stints at Tibco, in 2011, when there was lot of interest in social products which mimic Facebook etc and promise ease of collaboration, I figured that no matter how easy an application is, it may not be relevant for enterprise formats. We encountered a situation where a CIO on vacation was communicating through WhatsApp and negotiating a deal. Now despite sealing the agreement easily even when he was planted in a beach somewhere far, the contract did not curry much favour with the legal team. That’s when I strongly wondered – there’s got to be a better way to do this. More so, as soon we all will find a lot of work happening over messaging, something that will displace email as a new form of collaboration. Also, the most important aspects of a phone are bandwidth and battery. An app written for desktop can be a whopping product otherwise but can easily slip on a mobile. You have to remember issues like connectivity and battery life too.

Is that how Avaamo came about?

Yes, that was a sort of a genesis for Avaamo. We spent tremendous effort and time speaking and learning from actual enterprise users before writing even a single line of code. We wanted to be sure what business and organizations actually care about. Today, it is a venture funded mobile-only technology company. It was founded in early 2014 and we are aggressively tapping the Indian enterprise. Avaamo is backed by investors from Silicon Valley, China and Japan. We are co-headquartered in Bangalore and Los Altos, California, U.S but we have an R&D center in Bangalore.

Who is apt for using this app – any specific class of workers?

Anyone who is mobile is different and a perfect example of optimizing work through apps like this one. When I was speaking to a client in Ahmedabad recently, I stumbled upon this interesting epiphany – there is a big chunk of mobile-only workers emerging all around us. Think of air hostesses, carpenters, designers, sales people etc. A flight crew person just wears a uniform and a phone for instance and that works enough as a semblance of a workplace. Everything about work happens online or through phone. We have designed this app keeping this ilk of workers in mind. It’s slick, simple (remember we have employees from Apple background working on the app now), massively scalable and secure. One can send a voice memo in localized language to a different market segment. It is designed for a CIO too who may not worry too much about the UI (user interface) but loses sleep on access issues, identity or regulatory factors, or governance or admin aspects. So it marries both sets of wants beautifully together.

Who do you aspire to displace – the email or collaboration app bundle or names like WhatsApp?

It's all about practical features that we are trying to package together as a strong answer. In India, as the joke goes you can go from 3G to No G in two minutes – we need a sharp product. You should be able to work even when you are not getting enough connection. You cannot keep hitting send to a client or an associate – that pile of messages would look so unprofessional. So we have an auto-send capability built in the app. Similarly, a host of other features make it a practical solution for work. A CIO would not have to worry about employees who no longer work for the organization but are still in a WhatsApp group. That is something we bring about with two-level authentication feature: first the device and then the official email id. Remote wiping of all data for a non-employee is also possible. Like other collaboration tools, documents can be pulled in and out a drive and it works well irrespective of what phone model one has. A sea change is happening in the way we work – we are swiftly moving from emails to real-time communication mediums.

Does it allow for adequate compartmentalization of work and personal footprints?

Yes we take care of those boundaries well. In fact, we also consider legal nuances. For example – did a person receive a picture or document? Did a person view it? That can have a lot of significance when you are working with official content. In short, we have not designed the app sitting in some ivory tower but in a way which is pragmatic and mobile-specific as well as sharply tailored around enterprises.

App at a glance

It’s also happening on Apple Watch right?

Yes, ‘Avaamo for Apple Watch’ is what we call the first secure business messaging app, has been developed specifically from the grounds up for the Apple Watch, has been approved by Apple and is available for download from the App Store aligned with the Apple Watch launch on April 24, 2015. Apple Watch is expected to be available in India later this year and we are excited about the prospects. Its features cover Speech-to-text (to see an important message from a coworker, to simply speak into the watch where the Avaamo App will be able to convert to text and reply instantly); Smart Emojis at work tailored to your conversation and ability to tap your files, pictures, locations and videos. We also offer ‘Conversations at a Glance’ to allow for picking conversations you want to track, and the app will show them in your Apple Watch Glance

What’s it like making an app for a form factor which is so radical and unfamiliar? Did you come across issues like too-many apps, different UI sensibilities, app portability) specially when not tagged with iPhone) or is it just a shrunk-down version for a watch?

That’s a valid point. You cannot expect to read the whole memo on watch. You cannot have ten apps sitting on a watch. It has to be four apps that the wearer really cares about. The wearable user has a lot of growing up to do. We are the first business messaging app on Apple Watch and we are proud that the app is a way to reduce the chances of the person having to take out phone from his/her pocket/purse. To do that you cannot make the mistake of making a lot of stuff for an iPhone and then marketing it for watch. Because that’s not exactly a wearable app. When someone uses a watch, the person can talk into the watch and that can be converted to text easily and ready for hitting the ‘send’ option. It is all about rethinking the entire interaction model and that’s precisely what we have done. Apple gave us a lot of feedback and we spent a good deal of time working before the release.

Interaction models - will that aspect be a clincher for apps made for wearables?

When the industry goes through a shift like this one, then one has to ask oneself – do we really need this? Years back when Palm handhelds came, they sounded like a silly idea. What usually happens is that we get stuck with old interaction models and those hangovers take time as well as good design to break. In the case of wearables too, people will carry some hangovers or previous-generation devices but will get used to a new device. The real test of wearables is how to get people comfortable with using these new paradigms.