I’m trying to imagine personal communications of the future.

We’ve gone through letters, telegrams, phones, mobile phones, instant messaging, texting, and now social messaging, including ones that disappear, images and videos.

So far, it has all revolved around content. We have discovered we prefer anything but actually talking to each other. Video calls haven’t taken off much, outside of work, which is almost like a proof of work for WFH folk.

Content type might vary as time goes by, but there won’t be any new forms of content that are commonly shared. The next innovation will be context. 

That means where/who/when/why/how all become factors in how the conversation occurs and what it contains. This also means a lot of permission systems in play. Every contact will have levels of they can/cannot know about you, from nothing for a complete stranger to everything (?) for an intimate partner.

Examples:

From 10pm to 6am only calls from certain people will get through. The rest get a message that you are unavailable. It could also be tied into your health app that knows when you are actually asleep.

If your phone knows you are in a cinema, it automatically goes into silent mode, and only accepts calls from certain people.

If you are in close proximity to your wife, the call from your lover won’t get through.

Certain people can check what is happening in your world before calling. On a run, at a rock concert, having a meeting with the big boss. They know not to call you, and why, and have an estimate of when it will end.

When you have an arranged meeting with someone, for 15 minutes before and until you arrive, they can see your location. If you allow it. Seeing a dot on a map (like the approaching Uber driver) simply works.

There are likely dozens of other scenarios. We will still call them calls and messages, but context will be a feature. It will come from a trusted entity first, and could give Apple a big boost. It might be integrated with their Augmented Reality glasses.