AT&T is releasing a new app on Wednesday, replacing the MyAT&T app previously used to manage account options for both mobile and broadband customers. It incorporates a new AI-based chat assistant, parental controls and more details about call and data usage.

Typically, an app release isn't newsworthy on its own. But carriers' apps are becoming the central way that people interact with their wireless and home internet services, from checking and paying their bills to troubleshooting connection problems. Verizon has enlisted Google Gemini for front-line support in its app, and T-Mobile uses its T-Life app to stay on top of weekly perks and even encourages potential customers to switch carriers.

AT&T's new app -- simply, if confusingly, called just AT&T -- brings together its mobile and home internet features for what the company calls "converged" customers who subscribe to both. It also has a cleaner design and feels faster overall.

I tried a beta version of the app before launch, and one of the first things I noticed compared with the MyAT&T app was the removal of a long-standing annoyance. Sometimes when you're looking up information, the app displays it in a web browser within the interface. I'm shown the right content, but it feels like I've been handed off to something else, which is disjointing.

"Our data shows that if there is friction in [customers'] experiences, people just drop off," said Andrew Solmssen, assistant vice president of Digital Customer Growth at AT&T. "So we worked really hard on" the design and performance.

AI-powered converged assistant

The new AT&T app includes the buttons and menus you'd expect to navigate to view your bill, explore other plans and services, and shop for phones and accessories. But Solmssen said the development teams recognized that those structures don't work for everyone, which is why a major new feature is a generative-AI assistant named Andi.

"We're finding in our testing that people find [these tasks] to be a little easier to do directly through a conversation," Solmssen said. 

That also allows customers to change context without having to start over or navigate to a new section. If they're checking whether an International Day Pass is available, for example, and then switch to wanting to know the day pass rates, it's a matter of asking a follow-up question in the same chat, he said.

"The focus here is serving the customer in the best way that the customer wants to be served," said Jeff Dixon, AT&T assistant vice president of Digital Product Management and Development.

The feature is built using components from licensed LLMs such as Google's Gemini and OpenAI's models. Customer data remains with AT&T and isn't shared with outside companies. "Our data is all sequestered," Dixon said. "There's extensive red-teaming… [and] quite a lot of rigorous work just to make sure everything's safe."

In my limited testing with the beta app, getting information from the AI assistant was hit-or-miss. When I asked Andi how long it had been since I last used data on my Apple Watch, it showed me prices to buy a new watch. And when I asked it to recommend a plan for my account, it suggested the AT&T Unlimited Premium PL, which was retired last week in favor of the new Premium 2.0 plan.

I next asked it to compare Premium 2.0 with my current plan, but it couldn't access it. So, in this interaction at least, it's not pulling customer information into the conversation. But when I asked it to compare the Unlimited Elite plan with the Premium 2.0 plan, it gave me bulleted lists of features and a numbered summary of their differences.

I thought my expectations might be too high, but I realized they aren't really my expectations: Chatbots like this are meant to be conversational to give you an experience more like talking to a real person. If I walked into an AT&T store and chatted up one of the employees, they could pull up my account and answer questions with that information at hand.

"It's early enough days that we're going to have to see how customers use it, how customers like it," Solmssen said, adding that it still includes the option of going into a store to work with an AT&T representative or contacting phone support.

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Parental controls, detailed data and improved messages

Another new feature in the app lets you pause devices or sets of devices connected to your accounts. In the example Solmssen gave, if parents want to ensure some time away from phones during dinner or a family activity, they can pause each device for 30 minutes, 2 hours or 24 hours. That can be done on an individual level or in a group that includes each kid's phone. While taking a phone time-out for family dinner is a benign scenario, others -- including parental control that temporarily turns off kids' phones wherever they are -- could be overbearing.

If the family is a converged customer with both mobile and home internet on the same account, they can also pause Wi-Fi access to the devices using the same feature.

Groups can also be set up with downtime schedules, such as being offline during hours when the kids (or even the parents) should be sleeping.

A couple of other features stand out. The app shows more detailed usage statistics, such as for data being used by each device on the account, calls and texts and hotspot data.

"Even customers who are on unlimited wireless and unlimited internet are really curious about the data they're using," Solmssen said. "Being able to see that your child's devices were using a ton of data at 4 a.m. is incredibly valuable."

AT&T has also cleaned up the Messages interface. Hopefully, this means no more notifications that show up and then disappear into the ether if you dismiss them before reading.

The app is available to download now, and is also being rolled out gradually over the next few weeks to customers who have automatic app updates enabled on their iPhone or Android phones.