I don’t normally put my own credibility on the line by proclaiming “I’ve seen the future” left and right at the slightest new technology, but this is an exception. I have seen the future, seamless integration between computer and mobile, something companies have been promising us for years now, except that it’s already here in a form you least expect and an application many of us use: Google Talk.
Image courtesy of BWR’s Flickr
Google Talk – A Textbook Example Of Seamless Integration
If you own an Android device and use Google Talk on it and on the web interface inside Gmail, you must have seen it, but you probably didn’t notice it. See, I am always online on Google Talk on my phone, but many times during the day, I open Gmail in my web browser and am signed in on Gtalk inside it. With any other service, I would expect double notifications, and a lack of conversation status synchronization between mobile and computer. However this is not the case.
Conversations carry fluidly between web and mobile: what I wrote, what was said back in answer, everything shows in both interfaces. And the beauty of it? I only get notified on the one I am currently using.
Say I am talking to a friend on Gtalk web, but I need to go to the kitchen prepare dinner. I leave my desk, pick up my phone, switch to GTalk and my full conversation is there. I type something. Gtalk knows I now moved to mobile. When I get an answer back, it does NOT notify me on the computer, but on the phone. I keep chatting a bit while preparing my soup, and as I leave it to stew, I go back to my computer. The conversation is there as well, and when I type something there, Gtalk knows I’m back on the web interface, so it stops notifying me of new messages on my phone and starts notifying me on the computer.
How awesome is that? No, really, how friggin awesome is THAT?
Seamless Integration – Future? Present? Somewhere In Between?
This kind of integration and simple transition between devices isn’t new, however. For many years now, we’ve had Push Sync working for email and contacts. Think about Gmail: you get alerted to a new email whenever you receive one, and if you read it on the computer, it gets marked as read on your phone, and vice versa. However, the notifications aren’t “aware” of your whereabouts so you will get notified on all devices, regardless of which one you’re using now. Another example is Chrome-to-phone and Firefox sync, that propose to sync websites and browsing data between your computer browser and your phone. You can also think of Android Market’s new Install function that starts an application download and installation on your phone, when you click a link on your web browser.
Integration has been here for a long time, but it hasn’t been seamless yet. There’s always been a limitation: either in having to manually press a “sync” button every few minutes to keep all devices updated of the current state of things, either in the fact that no service is aware of what you’re using and shifts your notifications to that, bypassing other devices that might also be connected but not currently in active usage state.
The Future Of Mobility
Google Talk’s example above is a great proof of how true seamless integration works. That’s the future, an ease of mobility independent of devices, that moves along with us, sleeps and wakes up along with us, always aware of where we are, what we’re actively using, and what are our priorities at this moment, and that adapts its behavior to this data and actively keeps all our gadgets linked together in harmony.
