Last months, I often get called by anonymous phone numbers and many other people with me. Most of the times I do not respond to these phone numbers, but sometimes I am curious and do pick them up. Often it are telemarketers, so I finish the conversation quickly and end up being a little annoyed. Google’s smart assistant might be a solution to this annoying calls. (NOS, 2018)

The Call Screen is a feature for the Google Pixel 3 phone. Simply said, this feature screens your phone call before you answered it. When you receive a call from an anonymous phone number, you can choose to answer the call by the Google assistant. The caller will introduce itself, which will be shown as a transcription made by the Google assistant on your phone. After you read the transcription on your screen, you can decide to pick up, let the system tell you more, write a quick reply or mark the number as spam. (Tillman, 2018)

Google states that the system shall clearly indicate that the caller is in a conversation with the Call Screen feature and not with the real human, the caller was trying to reach. I think that this transparency is very important, because people might feel like they are being fooled when it is not clear if they are talking to a human or to a computer. Furthermore, this new feature raises privacy and security issues, since Call Screen allows Google to record and transcript the phone call. Besides that, it is also the question if this feature is really going to be a solution to reduce spam calls. Telemarketers often use number-spoofing services, whereby they can hide their identity by another phone number. This makes it difficult to mark these phone numbers as spam. (Tillman, 2018)

However, I think that it is a valuable new feature, because it gives more insights in who calls you and provides a convenient way of responding to potential spam calls. Do you think that Call Screens are going to be a solution for spam calls?

References:

NOS (2018). Googles nieuwe telefoon beantwoordt spam telefoontjes. Retrieved 14-10-2018 from https://nos.nl/artikel/2254123-googles-nieuwe-telefoon-beantwoordt-spamtelefoontjes.html

Tillman, M. (2018). What is Google Call Screen and how does it work?. Retrieved 14-10-2018 from https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/google/146018-google-call-screen-how-to-screen-spam-calls-with-google-assistant

After restaurants started working together with food delivery platforms like Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Foodora, a new phenomenon in the restaurant industry arose, namely ghost restaurants. Ghost restaurants, also called ghost kitchens or virtual kitchens, are restaurants without a dining room. These restaurants are designed for delivery service only and do not offer the traditional dining experience. Can these delivery-only restaurants become successful? And will these restaurants still make use of the existing food delivery platforms? (Jacob, 2018)

The biggest advantage of ghost restaurants over traditional restaurants is that they can save costs by not having a dining room, which needs furniture and waiters. Furthermore, the online food delivery market is growing, as more and more people like the convenience of ordering food online and let it deliver at home. This growing market creates big potential for the ghost restaurants. To offer their service I do expect ghost restaurants to still make use of the existing food delivery platforms, like Uber Eats. Although, ghost restaurants are designed for delivery-only and could develop their own delivery platform, the existing food platforms have such a big customer base that it will be hard for the restaurants to peer with this. People also like to have an app where multiple restaurants are assembled and they can choose between different types of dishes. The ghost restaurant will have to work together if they want to create the same format, which is difficult in terms of coordination. (Schwab, 2018) (Hirschberg et al., 2016)

I do not expect that traditional restaurants will totally disappear in the streets, because sometimes people want to have the traditional dining experience in a restaurant. When people have something to celebrate or want to have a special night out, they probably do not want to sit on the couch at home with a take-out box, but want to be served by waiters in a nice atmosphere. However, I think that it will become hard for the existing restaurants to all survive this disruption. The ghost restaurants can offer a way better price, whereby price sensitive customers will probably choose a ghost restaurant above a traditional restaurant for most occasions. That’s why I absolutely believe that ghost restaurants are going to be a success. Do you think that ghost restaurant are going to overtake the traditional restaurants?

References:

Hirschberg et al., (2016).The changing market for food delivery. Retrieved 06-10-2018 from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/the-changing-market-for-food-delivery

Jacob, A. (2018). No dining room, no storefront, no problem: ‘Ghost kitchens’ making their way to Winnipeg. Retrieved 06-10-2018 from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-ghost-kitchens-1.4774471

Schwab, P. (2018). Ghost kitchens : the next disruption in the restaurant industry? Retrieved 06-10-2018 from https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/en/ghost-kitchens-the-next-disruption-in-the-restaurant-industry/