The Great Unbundling – The Case For The Multi-App Platform

“Mobile usage is meant to be fast and focused.”

A recent blog post by Joe Johnston articulates why mobile apps should and will continue to unbundle rather than overload experiences that go beyond what they should. This is most evident with apps like Instagram and Messenger that remain independent of Facebook. These apps are focused, and that is part of their value proposition to users. As noted by Mr. Johnston, “mobile apps aren’t meant to house everything plus the kitchen sink, in fact, most users only use 20% of [an app’s] experience.” Another great example of unbundling is with one of Wellable’s partners – Foursquare. Only 5% Foursquare’s users were opening the app to find friends and a restaurant. That left 95% of its users opening the app to find either a recommendation-based result or to check-in, hence the decision to split the app into two apps: Foursquare and now Swarm.

Like other apps, wellness apps shouldn’t (and usually don’t) include all aspects of wellness. Many people use multiple apps to track their complete wellness picture. For example, individuals use Fitbit for step tracking and MyFitnessPal for nutrition. Even RunKeeper separated its step tracking app, Breeze, from its run tracking app because they realized a focused user experience is different for each activity. The positives are clear and apparent – users get rich, focused experiences for each element of wellness they are working on. The downsides include the challenges corporate wellness programs face when providing those rich user experiences to an individual, especially when employees are using multiple (and different) apps.

This is one of the many problems that Wellable solves. Built on the principle that employee choice is best, Wellable allows employees to choose the app(s) that make the most sense for them and reward employees for engaging in healthy behaviors. Most employees and employers agree with this philosophy, but with the increasing trend to unbundle, the only way a corporate wellness program can truly embrace a multi-app experience is through an aggregation platform like Wellable. In order to embrace this multi-app experience in a resource efficient way, the Wellable platform seamlessly and effortlessly pulls users data from multiple sources and administers engagement-enhancing rewards and competitions.

Wellable has already lived through the unbundling of one of its partners (Foursquare and Swarm), and it expects this trend to impact the health and wellness landscape for the foreseeable future. The unbundling movement gives consumers what they want – fast and focused experiences. Wellable is embracing this movement by giving employers what they want – high engagement wellness programs that employees will actually use.