Smartphones without apps: AI is supposed to be the new user interface comment 9
Image: Qualcomm
For MWC 2025, the vision of several companies is that AI could become a new user interface. What is meant is the so-called “AI agents”, which for the user should access apps that are only available in the background and thus be able to make multiple requests. We are talking about smartphones “without apps”.
If you listened to the MWC speakers of companies such as Honor, Oppo, Qualcomm or Telekom on their keynotes, as a common denominator, the vision of a smartphone controlled by artificial intelligence was often recognized “without apps”.
Artificial intelligence on the smartphone should no longer take place in specific apps, but should act as a main access to the various services. AI should therefore be the gateway to the individual functions of the smartphone like a launcher.
No more opening multiple apps
It is argued that the distribution of tasks in multiple silos can be dissolved. In this case, silos mean the respective apps, which for multi-step requests and tasks still have to be opened and used individually. An example: for the birthday of a family member, three well-rated Italian restaurants are to be selected within a radius of 20 km to the parents, all participants informed via Messenger, put a souvenir and a vacation day by e-mail in the company.
According to today’s procedure, you will have to open several applications and process everything step by step manually. A powerful artificial intelligence that functions as a launcher could potentially process the whole and do the individual subroutines via AI agents in the respective applications, let them play the AI and give the user a visual or acoustic confirmation without an open application.
Qualcomm’s vision: AI should become the new user interface (image: Qualcomm)
AI should become the new UI, that is, the new UI for the user instead of applications. Such a vision has divided several companies for the MWC, including the aforementioned ones such as Honor, Oppo, Qualcomm or Telekom.
Telekom Plant Ein Ki-Phone
Telekom is even surprisingly well advanced among the companies mentioned with the vision. Last year at MWC as a concept, the network operator announced this year’s show to want to launch an AI phone during this year, which is supposed to follow this philosophy of an “app-free” smartphone. The development partner is Perplexity AI from the United States, which with artificial intelligence should be able to process multimodal requests from text, language, images and videos without having to switch to individual applications.
Your opinion on the subject?
In fact, these smartphones will actually not be “app-free”, but the interaction with apps would move into the background and AI would develop at the first point of contact, provided that the concept would also have to be accepted by customers. As developers develop their apps, this may also change, as potentially no apps would need a UI.
What is the community’s opinion on this topic?
Topics: Deutsche Telekom Honor Artificial Intelligence MWC 2025 Oppo Qualcomm Smartphones Source: Own
Sarah tracks innovations in smartphones, evaluating their performance, design, and key features.
