LinkedIn Corp (LNKD) May Undergo A Great 'Unbundling' With Two New Apps: WSJ

LinkedIn Corp. may try to take up more of your phone's screen as the company undergoes a great "unbundling." The professional social network currently has eight mobile apps and may add two more to its roster, the Wall Street Journal reports.

One proposed app called LinkedIn Groups would notify users of new messages in the LinkedIn groups they are in. LinkedIn LookUp would be a searchable database of co-workers, sources told the Journal. While the first seeks to provide a resource to all general LinkedIn users, the latter provides a tool for businesses. It is unknown if or when these apps could come online.

The aim reportedly is to improve engagement from LinkedIn's 364 million users. While the Journal said more than half of LinkedIn's traffic comes on mobile, monthly unique visitors spend only one minute per day on the app, whereas on Facebook, users spend an estimated 44 minutes daily.

The "unbundling" strategy has done well so far for other networks such as Facebook. Last year, Facebook split messaging from its mobile app and required users to download Facebook Messenger. That app hit 1 billion downloads in June and has allowed Facebook to expand its messaging features through third-party app integrations like maps and GIFs.

Facebook also experiments with new standalone apps (Paper, Slingshot, Rooms, Riff), however, none of which have taken off. But these apps have potentially provided insight into other products. For example, Facebook's new Instant Articles program with media publishers has similar features to Facebook's news reader app Paper. On Wednesday, LinkedIn updated its own content app called Pulse with an aesthetic redesign and more personalized content. LinkedIn may also be updating its messaging services, sources told the Journal.

LinkedIn currently has eight iPhone apps and three iPad apps. The smartphone apps are:

• LinkedIn: the main standalone app for accessing profiles, sharing updates and looking up users
• LinkedIn Connected: gets push notifications from certain connections and plans meetings
• LinkedIn Job Search: searches and sort through job listings and keeps track of applications
• LinkedIn Pulse: daily news content from the network
• SlideShare Presentations: views and saves slide presentations from experts
• LinkedIn Recruiter: app for LinkedIn Recruiter, allows for searching and reaching out to potential hires
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: app for LinkedIn Sales members, be notified of changes to clients' pages
• LinkedIn Elevate: available to employees at participating companies, to see insights on articles you've shared