In a world that’s over-app’d and underwhelmed, conversation isn’t just king: it’s conversion

Every year, over 250 000 new mobile apps are launched across Apple and Google’s app stores. Yet research by Data.ai reveals that the average smartphone user interacts with only nine apps a day, with the majority of their time concentrated in just two or three apps - and almost always, WhatsApp is one of them. In fact, WhatsApp now boasts over 2.8 billion global users, and in South Africa, it holds near-total dominance in the messaging space, with penetration rates exceeding 93%, and the average user spending over 38 minutes a day on the app, according to SimilarWeb’s State of Mobile Usage Report 2024.

In light of this, businesses need to confront a glaring contradiction: while consumers are actively consolidating their digital behaviour into a handful of core apps, companies continue to invest heavily in the development of standalone mobile apps that most users simply won’t adopt - or worse, delete immediately after a single use.

This phenomenon, often referred to as "app fatigue," is the result of saturation, complexity, and an overestimation of consumer patience. In a mobile-first country like South Africa, where data costs remain among the highest in the world relative to income, and where many users rely on mid-tier smartphones with limited storage, forcing users to download yet another app just to perform a one-time action (like checking in for a flight, applying for a loan, or ordering food) is no longer just ineffective. It’s tone-deaf.

The truth is, the app boom of the early 2010s has given way to a new behavioural economy - one where convenience, conversation, and contextual relevance rule. And this is exactly where WhatsApp smartbots come into play.

Smartbots built into WhatsApp offer a fundamentally different value proposition. They eliminate the friction of downloads, logins, forgotten passwords, and clunky interfaces. Instead, they offer seamless, AI-powered user journeys inside a platform where consumers are already spending their time, communicating daily with friends, family, service providers, and increasingly, with businesses.

Take the simple example of buying concert tickets. Traditionally, this requires downloading a ticketing app, signing up, verifying your email, searching for the event, inputting payment details, and navigating an unfamiliar UI - all just to complete a single transaction. For many consumers, especially those with low-end devices or limited digital literacy, this complexity actively discourages purchase completion.

Now imagine the same process happening inside WhatsApp. A smartbot could handle the entire transaction in a familiar, conversational interface: from presenting ticket options to processing payment - in under two minutes. It’s almost unbelievable. No new app, no login, no frustration. The user simply interacts with the brand as they would with a friend.

But the power of WhatsApp smartbots goes beyond convenience. They represent a fundamental shift in how businesses can gather and use behavioural data, and this is where the real gold lies.

Unlike traditional mobile apps, which often operate as closed systems with poor visibility into friction points, smartbots allow businesses to track real-time user behaviour, understand drop-off patterns, personalise responses, and continuously improve the journey. Every interaction becomes a data point. Every pause, every rephrased query, every bounce can inform smarter design, better offers, and more effective customer engagement.

For South African businesses, this is particularly valuable. In a market defined by economic pressure, fragmented consumer trust, and a competitive scramble for loyalty, the ability to extract behavioural insights from user interactions is game-changing. It allows companies to segment their audiences more intelligently, craft communication in users’ preferred languages, test promotions in real time, and optimise services based on actual usage - and not assumption.

Let’s take financial services, one of the most misunderstood and under-leveraged sectors when it comes to conversational commerce. A bank or loan provider using a WhatsApp smartbot can prequalify customers, answer FAQs, perform KYC (Know Your Customer) verification, and process documents, all in chat. But more importantly, it can learn from every single user: where they get stuck, which products they gravitate toward, what questions they ask most often. Over time, the system becomes smarter, faster, and more personalised, reducing churn and increasing conversions.

The same applies in real estate. Imagine searching for a rental or bond pre-qualification via a property smartbot. It asks what you’re looking for, shows curated options, and connects instantly to a financial services bot for affordability checks. Key documents like IDs and bank statements can be uploaded directly via chat. All this happens within one platform, without switching between apps, browsers, and portals.

It’s not just about digitisation anymore. It’s about removing friction, increasing trust, and accelerating conversion in environments people already use and trust. In this way, smartbots help lower the digital barrier to entry, particularly for users who may be smartphone-reliant but app-averse, which includes a significant portion of South Africa’s population.

There’s also a deeper psychological shift at play. When a customer interacts with a smartbot inside WhatsApp, it feels like a conversation, not a transaction. This changes the tone, the pace, and the expectation. It creates space for micro-engagements, which are the building blocks of long-term relationships. A user might ask for a quote today, a recommendation next week, and make a purchase a month later - all wit

hin the same conversation thread. Try doing that with a traditional app - its simply not possible. 

Of course, this isn’t a call to kill every mobile app. There will always be space for native apps when high-frequency, high-functionality interactions are required. But for most businesses, especially those offering single-use journeys, occasional interactions, or basic service queries, apps are increasingly obsolete. And customers know it!

The future belongs to businesses that stop trying to own space on a user’s home screen and start earning space in their daily conversations. WhatsApp smartbots aren’t just a tactical tool, they’re a strategic platform shift. One that reflects the new rules of engagement: meet users where they are, speak their language, and make it simple.

Because in a world that’s over-app’d and underwhelmed, conversation isn’t just king - it’s conversion.

Jonathan Elcock, Co-founder and CEO at Rather.chat

*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.

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