What will you experience in 2016?

2015 has been a wonderful year for the technology industry. We witnessed lots of innovative services and products. Instant messaging, 3-D printing and social connectivity have reached their peak. 2016 will be as exciting as 2015 and maybe even more so. So what should we expect in technology and social media? 

The keywords of 2016 in the social media era will be: instant everything, Scorp, Periscope, Snapchat, WhatsApp, UI/UX, user journey, gamification, crowd sourcing, makers, videos, disruptive startups, Pinterest, mobiles, social media as a search engine and culture. 

And the 12 biggest trends will be the following according to Gartner and other major advisors:

1. In-the-moment updates will dominate.

2. Buy buttons will take over.

3. In-app functionality will diversify and spread.

4. New publication options will be available.

5. User privacy concerns will hit an all-time high.

6. Social media searches are becoming more powerful.

7. Live social broadcasts are a thing.

8. Inbound messages for social customer service are going up. 

9. Social networks storm the workplace.

10. Companies turn to employees for amplification.

11. Companies wade into social messaging.

12. Social media advertising hits its stride. 

The technology keywords will be: virtual reality, sports wearables, drones, Internet of Things (IoT), robots, smart homes, tracking, underlying tech, augmented reality, 3-D printing, and intelligent manufacturing.

And the trends will be: 

1. The device mesh

2. Ambient user experience

3. 3-D-printing materials

4. Information of everything

5. Advanced machine learning

6. Autonomous agents and things

7. Adaptive security architecture

8. Advanced customer architecture

9. The Mesh app and service architecture

10. Internet of Things architecture and platforms 

11. Industry 4.0 

I know this is a lot to take in one article and one sitting. That is why I will write a lot about these topics in the coming weeks.