Pre-Mobile Tech Companies Re-Inventing Their Core Apps for Mobile

The mobile world is becoming vastly different from desktop, with several pre-mobile companies redeveloping their core apps around mobile and tablet, to offer a new experience. This all started with Facebook Paper a few months ago. Rumored to be the new RSS feed, Facebook Paper actually offers more than that, it offers a whole new way to read your News Feed, alongside news from the most credited websites. Not only has Facebook Paper smoothed some of the rough areas on the main Facebook app, it offers an experience that works perfectly on mobile. Users are not bogged down by the dozens of different features on the main app.

Next in line for an update is Gmail, with Google announcing a new app called Inbox. This is not only mobile focused, but takes a few features from mobile apps like Mailbox, in order to spouse the design and functionality of the email client. Inbox has the new Android Lollipop ‘Material Design’ and Google has revamped the way emails are sorted, basing them on importance and sorting them automatically into groups, instead of simply piling them up one after another. This type of automatic sorting gives Inbox users more productivity, especially when coming back from a trip and having to sort out all different types of emails from individuals and companies.

Skype also got a revamp for mobile, but instead of updating the core features and design, Skype added a new feature entirely, 42 second videos. Similar to Snapchat, these videos allow users to record short messages, instead of sending a text message. Named Skype Qik – it offers a larger size bank than Snapchat – at the expense of not deleting the video after it is watched. This might be a bit problematic for users who want to erase videos and photos, but speaks to Skype’s core functionality as a voice chat service, rather than a secret photo and video service.

What do all of these have in common? They’re all built from the ground up to be mobile apps, and all change the original UI design to something simpler, smarter and more productive.