Browsers, and agents, are the future of mobile
AI assistants now have billions of users. Time to revisit my decade-old opinions on the future of mobile browsing.
Back in 2016 I published a post on the Intercom blog that trended in the top 5 on Hacker News, sparked heated debates on Twitter, and divided readers into two camps: those who thought I was a complete fool, and those who thought I had a point.
“Browsers, not apps, are the future of mobile” argued that messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Slack, and WhatsApp were actually web browsers in disguise - a new way to discover and interact with the content and services you cared about.
I argued:
“Facebook is our browser for the social web. It makes it easy for us to browse through and discover the friends, businesses, and content we’re most likely to enjoy. Instead of having to ‘pull’ content through traditional browsers, Facebook ‘pushes’ content to us based on our interests and those of our friend networks.”
I even included a screenshot of Facebook’s iOS app to prove my point. It contained an address bar, a save button, and buttons to browse backwards and forwards. Features of most mobile browsers then, and most mobile browsers today.
I also - naively - predicted that bots were “the new way to browse” and that we’d book rides and buy products without ever leaving messaging apps.
“Instead of going into the address bar, typing a URL, and waiting to receive content every time, bots can push us the content as we need it. They can learn the content we’re most likely to engage with, and serve us more relevant content over time. They curate content for us.”
Yep, that one didn’t age well.
A decade later, I cringe at how bad some of my predictions were. But it wasn’t all bad.
I was wrong about bots. I was right about browsers.
Facebook Messenger bots never became the web browsing nirvana I (or Meta) hoped for. Most people still don’t book Ubers through messaging apps or buy holidays through them (though WeChat’s success in China suggests the potential was real).
But I didn’t get it completely wrong. I just had the wrong timeline - and the wrong technology. The “bots” I predicted weren’t Facebook Messenger chatbots.
They were AI assistants, orchestrating AI agents for us.
When ChatGPT reportedly hit one billion weekly users this year, it became the fastest-growing consumer app in history. But it also became one of the world’s most popular web browsers - though most people don’t recognize it as such.
Traditional browsers like Chrome and Safari “pull” information for us - they fetch and display whatever we explicitly request. But AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude are more intelligent and independent. They understand context and intent.
And, powered by products like Browserbase and Browser Use, they enable agents to do our internet browsing for us.
Think about how you use ChatGPT today. You ask it for help, and it doesn't just return links or answers. More often than not it browses the web, synthesizes information from multiple sources, and creates curated, contextually relevant responses.
This is browsing. It’s just not the kind of browsing we’ve been used to.
When I wrote about Facebook being a “browser for the social web” in 2016, I was hoping for something similar - an intelligent system that curates and presents information based on your interests and context. Sure, Facebook’s algorithm understands you, filtering billions of posts down to dozens that appear in your feed.
But Facebook was limited to the content and information within its own system.
Today’s AI agents can access and browse the entire web.
Agents, the new way to browse
Here’s what one potential future of mobile browsing looks like in practice. Through their Android app, I ask Manus to “Find me the highest rated smoothie maker, and order it for me on Amazon.”
What happens next isn’t traditional mobile browsing. It’s something entirely different.
Instead of opening Amazon’s mobile app and struggling with a bunch of review sites on my small screen, Manus starts desktop browser sessions in the cloud.
While I continue using my phone (or, put it down to do something more productive), an AI agent navigates full desktop versions of review sites and Amazon on my behalf - accessing and reading detailed reviews, comparing specifications, and evaluating the best options. Something that might take me hours on a mobile device.
The magic isn’t that the agent can browse. It can browse better, and faster, than I can.
It’s doing the kind of comprehensive research that I’d want to do but rarely have the patience for - on desktop, or on mobile. If I want to intervene or provide additional guidance, I can - but I don’t have to. The agent understands my intent well enough to make intelligent decisions on my behalf.
When it’s done, it searches Amazon’s complete product catalog and orders the highest rated smoothie maker for me.
This is the “We can book things and buy things” future I hoped for in 2016.
But instead of happening through clunky chatbots in messaging apps, it’s happening through intelligent agents that navigate rich desktop web experiences while presenting me with a simple, mobile-optimized interface for oversight and control.
The agent becomes my browser, handling the complexity while keeping me informed and in control of the outcome. It buys me the most precious commodity of all - time.
The new browser wars have already begun
Browserbase and Browser Use are building new types of browsers for AI agents, but web browsers for humans are evolving, too.
Built on Google’s open source Chromium project, Perplexity’s new Comet browser is attracting rave reviews. And, it seems, their ambitions don’t stop there - Perplexity appear to have ambitions to create a new, AI-first operating system.
Unlike traditional browsers that often add AI features as an afterthought, Comet is designed from the ground up as an 'agentic browser' that can pull information from multiple open tabs simultaneously, and help users complete tasks.
Building on their release of Operator, OpenAI’s rumored web browser also looks like a play to become the next, AI-first operating system of choice. And Anthropic have been experimenting with Computer Use, a beta feature that enables Claude to interact with desktop environments.
Google - owners of almost 70% of the browser market - are also on the front foot.
Google is integrating Gemini AI directly into Chrome, providing context-aware assistance using current page content, summarization, and question-answering without tab switching. And Project Mariner already powers autonomous AI agents that can control Chrome, navigate websites, fill forms, and complete tasks.
For these browsers, context will be the new competitive advantage.
Traditional browsers treat every session as independent. AI-first browsers maintain context across interactions, building a persistent understanding of user needs and preferences. Products that provide rich context to agents - about user behavior, preferences, and history - will have a significant advantage over those that don’t.
I know what you’re thinking. The examples I just shared are focused on desktop.
But eventually, inevitably, they’ll appear on mobile. Google is, for example, already “combining” Chrome OS and Android - integrating AI assistants and agents into that unified OS is a next, natural step.
The Manus example I shared earlier is a taste of what’s to come.
The future I hoped for is late, but it’s here
The companies investing in our browser-first, agent-first future have been quietly positioning themselves for the next phase of the internet.
Just as mobile forced every company to rethink their products for touch interfaces, AI is forcing every company to rethink their products for agents and browsers. The companies that recognize this shift early and adapt their product and partnerships strategies accordingly will have massive advantages over those that don’t.
The platform shift is happening now. And the stakes are enormous.
If you enjoyed reading this post - or would like to ask me a question - comment below or reach out to me on LinkedIn.