AT&T on Wednesday started rolling out a new app designed to make it easier for customers to manage all their services in one place. It makes sense as mobile carriers increasingly go digital and make AI front and center of the customer experience.
But AT&T appears to be taking a slightly different approach than T-Mobile, which has been making a big deal about T-Life and directing customers to do most of their business on the app, including buying new phones (and switching carriers, of course).
T-Mobile’s approach is hardly subtle. During a recent store visit, a sales associate made sure that I had the T-Life app installed before completing a phone purchase. Apparently, they couldn’t sell me a phone any other way. Had I known this was how it was going to go down, I might have downloaded the app myself and avoided going into the store entirely.
Anyway, it was irritating. (Said the person who still likes to talk to people face to face. Also: Get off of my lawn!!!)
When I heard that AT&T was launching a new app, my first question was: Is it as annoying as T-Life? It does, after all, feature a generative-AI assistant named Andi to provide “expert advice” on all your customer-support needs.
The answer appears to be somewhere in the middle.
AT&T: Mobile self-serve
“The new AT&T app is designed to give customers more choice with a simple, best-in-class digital experience. Many customers have told us they prefer to ‘help themselves’ and we’re delivering on this,” an AT&T spokesperson told me.
But there remains a human element. “Ultimately, we’re here to help the customer in the ways they prefer, not just in digital. Our stores and call centers have human experts available to help. We’re the only carrier that provides a Guarantee for technical care,” the spokesperson said.
From that, I take it AT&T isn’t going to be shoving the app down customers’ throats, which, sorry to say, kinda seems like what T-Mobile is doing. T-Mobile execs have said as much, though in more polite terms.
I reached out to Verizon to find out its policy around apps, but didn’t hear back immediately. Most likely, Verizon’s got a few other pressing matters to deal with.
T-Mobile: T-Life at center of it all
During a Morgan Stanley investor conference earlier this month, T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan said his company’s T-Life flagship app is connected to about 34 million families and businesses, with 24 million of them using the app at least four times a month.
Some 73% of upgrades – one of the most frequent transactions in stores – are now done through T-Life, and 39% are done with no person involved. “T-Life is the center of a lot of our work,” he said.
When T-Mobile unveiled its “Switching Made Easy” app in November, executives pointed out how people can use their wireless phones to do many things, but oddly, buying wireless services wasn’t one of them. They set out to change that – and they created an app that promises to switch an account from AT&T or Verizon over to T-Mobile in 15 minutes.
We all know what happened after that. AT&T filed suit, claiming T-Mobile was fishing through its computer systems and ripping off customer data. T-Mobile defended its app and denied ever accessing AT&T servers. Meanwhile, both AT&T and Verizon are calling out how T-Mobile claims to offer $1,000 in annual savings compared to its rivals.
AT&T’s new app, with the uninspired name “AT&T,” doesn’t include a switching component, but it does allow customers to shop the latest devices and plans, subscribe to home internet service and find the closest AT&T store. True to its “all about convergence” messaging, AT&T emphasizes that customers with both AT&T wireless and AT&T home internet – whether fiber or fixed wireless access (FWA) – can manage their services together in one place.
But they’re not forcing anybody to upgrade their devices via the app. AT&T’s stores still employ people and “they aren’t conducting upgrades or sales in the app from the store,” the AT&T spokesperson said. “The app is simply focused on delivering a faster, streamlined experience that helps customers who prefer a digital solution.”
Clearly, all the mobile operators are going digital and directing customers to mobile apps. For a certain segment of customers, that’s great. And of course, it makes Wall Street happy when companies take costs off their balance sheet.
But “digital-first” doesn’t always mean “better.” Some customers still want to talk to a human and not spend half a day fighting through a phone tree to get to one.
It’s good to hear AT&T is making its app optional, for now. We’ll see if that changes.
Opinions from industry experts, analysts or our editorial staff do not represent the opinions of Fierce Network.