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What's really bizarre to me is how some people use a whole bunch of messaging apps. My girlfriend uses iMessage to text me, Facebook messanger to text several f

What's really bizarre to me is how some people use a whole bunch of messaging apps. My girlfriend uses iMessage to text me, Facebook messanger to text several friends, WhatsApp for one of her girlfriends. Why not standardize? Alas I am not everyone and I need to remember that.

peterschroeder 10y ago
Haha I wish it were that simple. I alone use over 10 messaging apps. They all serve a different purpose. For example I use WhatsApp to talk to my wife and friends. I use Slack to communicate with my team. I use Intercom to chat live with customers. I use email to correspond with vendors. Not to mention all of the messages I check across social media every day. If nothing else, this app will be a lifesaver for me! :)
chainsaw10 10y ago
> Why not standardize? You can't. These apps don't federate, and not everyone uses all of them. As I wrote this comment, I realized I use more apps than I thought. I use SMS for some folks, Messenger for others, and Slack, Hangouts, and GroupMe for specific groups. If I'm in a 5+ person group chat, I can't really ask everyone to move to something else. And I want to hear what's going on, so I keep the app around.
- peterschroeder 10y ago
  Great point, I am not sure we can get to the point where we can encompass ever single scenario, but maybe. Group chats are something I have had a problem thinking through. At the moment, it is the number one thing on my list to find a solution for!
- IgorPartola 10y ago
  The thing is that I know fOr a fact that in this particular group of people everyone has free SMS and/or iMessage. Moreover, they all know rah others' real names and phone numbers. Some talk on the phone, yet use Facebook for messages. These are not people who care about federation. It's just some kind of bizarre force of habit. These are also all the people who have at least a thousand unread emails in their inboxes. I know one person who has roughly 60k unread emails dating back to 1997 when she created her AOL account. She is not a Luddite and very good at using other types of tech but somehow never mastered email.
  - peterschroeder 10y ago
    Haha that is hilarious, but honestly - I have around 3k unread emails too (I keep it up to date now, but these accumulated years ago!) There is no doubt, people are going to struggle heavily to catch on to messaging. People seem to just now be getting social media (which is why it is dying) and now they have to adjst to messaging.
lj3 10y ago
The social landscape has changed since the early days of messaging. Everybody chats using their real names in an age where saying the wrong thing could mean you lose your job (or worse). People compartmentalize more. Close friends gets one set of thoughts, parents get another set of thoughts, work colleagues get a third. It's easier to compartmentalize with completely separate apps. None of the messaging apps I've ever used (not even tweetdeck) makes managing multiple identities easy. And then there are the network effects of completely disparate social groups...
- peterschroeder 10y ago
  Wow great insights. I agree I have never used a unification app that executed, but that is exactly what we are aiming for. Job because it has never been done does not mean it can't be. By doing things like talking to people on here, it is my goal to be nothing like anything any of the other apps tried to do. I agree with what you said about Tweetdeck, but what we are trying to do is more of a Tweetdeck / Hootsuite hybrid.

peterschroeder 10y ago

Haha I wish it were that simple. I alone use over 10 messaging apps. They all serve a different purpose. For example I use WhatsApp to talk to my wife and friends. I use Slack to communicate with my team. I use Intercom to chat live with customers. I use email to correspond with vendors. Not to mention all of the messages I check across social media every day. If nothing else, this app will be a lifesaver for me! :)

chainsaw10 10y ago

> Why not standardize? You can't. These apps don't federate, and not everyone uses all of them. As I wrote this comment, I realized I use more apps than I thought. I use SMS for some folks, Messenger for others, and Slack, Hangouts, and GroupMe for specific groups. If I'm in a 5+ person group chat, I can't really ask everyone to move to something else. And I want to hear what's going on, so I keep the app around.

peterschroeder 10y ago
Great point, I am not sure we can get to the point where we can encompass ever single scenario, but maybe. Group chats are something I have had a problem thinking through. At the moment, it is the number one thing on my list to find a solution for!
IgorPartola 10y ago
The thing is that I know fOr a fact that in this particular group of people everyone has free SMS and/or iMessage. Moreover, they all know rah others' real names and phone numbers. Some talk on the phone, yet use Facebook for messages. These are not people who care about federation. It's just some kind of bizarre force of habit. These are also all the people who have at least a thousand unread emails in their inboxes. I know one person who has roughly 60k unread emails dating back to 1997 when she created her AOL account. She is not a Luddite and very good at using other types of tech but somehow never mastered email.
- peterschroeder 10y ago
  Haha that is hilarious, but honestly - I have around 3k unread emails too (I keep it up to date now, but these accumulated years ago!) There is no doubt, people are going to struggle heavily to catch on to messaging. People seem to just now be getting social media (which is why it is dying) and now they have to adjst to messaging.

lj3 10y ago

The social landscape has changed since the early days of messaging. Everybody chats using their real names in an age where saying the wrong thing could mean you lose your job (or worse). People compartmentalize more. Close friends gets one set of thoughts, parents get another set of thoughts, work colleagues get a third. It's easier to compartmentalize with completely separate apps. None of the messaging apps I've ever used (not even tweetdeck) makes managing multiple identities easy. And then there are the network effects of completely disparate social groups...

peterschroeder 10y ago
Wow great insights. I agree I have never used a unification app that executed, but that is exactly what we are aiming for. Job because it has never been done does not mean it can't be. By doing things like talking to people on here, it is my goal to be nothing like anything any of the other apps tried to do. I agree with what you said about Tweetdeck, but what we are trying to do is more of a Tweetdeck / Hootsuite hybrid.