> The purpose of saying “hi” is to check for presence in order to initiate a live conversation. It sends a message that the person wishes to speak live whenever

> The purpose of saying “hi” is to check for presence in order to initiate a live conversation. It sends a message that the person wishes to speak live whenever that is convenient. No, it does not. If the person wants to do a call, you either call directly or - more polite these days - you send a message along the lines of "Can I call you about <x>?" or "Please call me whenever you're ready to talk about <x>". If you want to engage in synchronous (i.e. live) conversation, you don't engage it by just sending "hi" over a text chat, which is a very asynchronous medium.