This Smartphone Operates Solely on AI, Eliminating the Need for Apps

The smartphones we use today need apps just like we need oxygen to breathe. However, the future of smartphones may be without apps, and we got a glimpse of that possible reality this week at Mobile World Congress 2024 (MWC 2024).

One company has used the platform to showcase a concept smartphone powered entirely by artificial intelligence. That’s right, Imagine a phone that has no apps and can run with AI. This is what Deutsche Telekom has done in front of an audience in Barcelona this week. We all need apps on our phones to make calls, send messages and even order food.

But the company believes that with advances in artificial intelligence, these tools can be replaced right on the device, and this concept is a sign of things to come in the near future. The company’s concept device is called T-Phone, which has an application-free user interface and which the company has developed together with Qualcomm and a startup company called Brain.

In fact, the company’s CEO has claimed that people won’t be using apps on their phones in the next 5-10 years. So how does AI replace these apps on a smartphone? The company notes that AI is capable of performing all of these tasks and producing results that are tailored to the user rather than spewing out random content.

The telco also cited the growth and development of large language models (LLM) as ensuring that these phones can thrive without apps and function normally according to the end user and their needs. We’re already seeing AI making its way to phones in the form of the Gemini Nano, available on the Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24.

You can expect to see more devices, including iPhones, get AI integration in the coming years. So it’s not entirely shocking to hear that the company is showing us a future where apps aren’t necessarily the only fuel needed to run these devices.