At this point, you might have heard people online using the phrase “software as content” or some version of it. As AI makes it easier and easier for anybody to build software, the type of software that people create (and the rate at which they do so) will expand to resembling that of media - software not just as a means of utility, but as expression and entertainment. While this concept isn’t new at all, it is something that will dramatically expand as AI eliminates barriers for anyone to turn an idea into reality solely via prompting. You’re already starting to see the rise of “software creators” who build repeated apps or games not just to earn revenue, but also as a means of self expression, building a following, or just for fun.
What does a world look like where anybody and everybody can ship software, apps, and games with ease, not just seasoned developers? What type of infrastructure is needed to build that environment, and where does the value accrue?
We think (you guessed it!) mini apps on Farcaster are uniquely positioned to help catalyze this future. There are a few features that mini apps, and Farcaster mini apps specifically, have that enable this:
Built-in wallets
Farcaster’s native wallets for users eliminate critical friction at multiple points in an app’s journey: authentication and payments.
Instead of a user having to create a new profile for every app or game that they might come across, they can automatically sign in with their Farcaster wallet without any additional steps. That’s a huge gain in conversion for app developers, avoiding a common point of churn at an app’s login/signup stage.
Farcaster wallets are also…wallets! This means users carry native funds inside their account, making it easy for mini apps to integrate payments, tokens, or onchain data into their app. This could mean minting NFTs, buying tokens, paying for in-app purchases with stablecoins, and much more.
Onchain data in mini apps is also composable and public. If a mini app leverages a unique smart contract, any other app or interface can read that data and do unique things on top of it: for example, someone could build a mini app aggregating a user's tipping data across Tipn, Noice, and $DEGEN – or enable gated features based on a user’s token or NFT ownership.
Social graph
Mini apps on Farcaster benefit from also being able to tap into the Farcaster social graph. This means social features like leaderboards, friends, or followers can be readily accessible to enhance the experience for any mini app developer. This also enables a new set of apps that are themselves inherently social, as opposed to non-social apps that are simply shared on social networks.
Instead of each new app having to build its own graph of users and relationships, mini apps can now just use the existing Farcaster graph to auto-populate that for users. Similar to how Facebook apps benefitted from being inherently social during its early days, Farcaster can provide the same experience for mini apps built on platform.
Mini app creator @jc4p showed a great example of this when he built the Simps R Us mini app right after the collectibles launch — it was only possible because of public social data around both onchain cast collectibles alongside the Farcaster graph.
Distribution
As the saying goes, Distribution Rules Everything Around Me. Especially as the cost of building apps goes lower, distribution will become the truly scarce resource for developers looking to attract users.
One reason mini apps help with distribution is because they exist in the feed and can be opened up directly from a cast with no additional steps.
The traditional flow of sharing an app on an existing social network looks something like this:
If it’s a mobile app, the user has to open the link, wait to install the app, and then sign up
If it’s a web app, not only are links deboosted on platforms like X, but the user would still have to leave the app to visit a separate website entirely.
You can compare this to a Farcaster mini app, where it’s just a single button click and the user is already in the app and authenticated. Mini apps are embedded directly into the flow of a user’s social experience, without requiring extra steps that often lead to loss of conversion from app developers.
Mini app notifications also enable mini app developers to reach their users directly within the Farcaster app. Notifications have shown to be the most important tool for retaining users beyond the initial onboarding, and because users are already using the Farcaster app so often, being able to plug into Farcaster notifications is a huge boost compared to asking the user to add new notifications for a new app entirely. We've seen sustained usage of Neynar's mini app notifications driving meaningful retention for a variety of mini apps:
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The future of media looks like a world where software is shared, used, and consumed as seamlessly as image, video, and text. Farcaster is building the playground that will allow this future to flourish. The next generation of software creators will reach their audiences and find and retain new users as simply and easily as the click of a button - how software was meant to be.
But more than that, mini apps combined with AI also will enable an entirely new class of creators to emerge. Today’s software is built by experienced programmers and computer science graduates, but tomorrow’s software will be built by anyone with an imagination.
We’re super excited about this future and it's why we’re investing so deeply in the mini app stack for Farcaster. Beyond new products on the horizon that will leverage AI more deeply, we’ve also built a robust mini-app starter kit, fully abstracted notifications, and analytics tooling — as well as Farcaster-native APIs and tools for mini app developers to integrate into their products.