The Case Against Conversational Interfaces

https://julian.digital/2025/03/27/the-case-against-conversational-interfaces/

I’m not entirely sure where this obsession with conversational interfaces comes from. Perhaps it’s a type of anemoia, a nostalgia for a future we saw in StarTrek that never became reality. Or maybe it’s simply that people look at the term “natural language” and think “well, if it’s natural then it must be the logical end state”.

I’m here to tell you that it’s not.

Touch-based interfaces are considered the third pivotal milestone in the evolution of human computer interaction, but they have always been more of an augmentation of desktop computing rather than a replacement for it. Smartphones are great for “away from keyboard” workflows, but important productivity work still happens on desktop.

That’s because text is not a mobile-native input mechanism. A physical keyboard can feel like a natural extension of your mind and body, but typing on a phone is always a little awkward – and it shows in data transfer speeds: Average typing speeds on mobile are just 36 words-per-minute, notably slower than the ~60 words-per-minute on desktop.

via Thorsten Ball