3 ms·

Do users really care about those shiny new features? For me most of it was stupid stuff. Stickers, shaking windows.. The ability to turn that crap off is entir

Do users really care about those shiny new features? For me most of it was stupid stuff. Stickers, shaking windows.. The ability to turn that crap off is entirely why I'd want a different client. And it's not really like you can have your feature available everywhere on day 1 really, even on a proprietary client. People often lag behind updating their apps on their devices. I managed a fleet of 60k mobiles of which 40k byod (personally owned). and we often ran into issues with people not updating even included apps like chrome for years and we'd have to email them and even ban them when a serious vulnerability was found in the wild.

Gigachad 4y ago
The stupid stuff is all important to someone. The stickers on telegram are the main reason furries use the platform over discord for example. And mobile platforms auto update now so while it’s possible there could be an old version out, not much effort is put in to making it work. Telegram shows a basic text showing the message is not supported on your version and prompts you to update. Even the stuff that is hardly a feature but more a UX prompt is important. Discord voice channels are not that much functionally different to traditional group calls, but that way they get used is dramatically different because the UX is. Imagine if someone bridged discord to some other IM app and when someone joins a voice channel, it starts a group call on the other app which opens a ringer on that persons phone. The compatibility is close enough right, but that minor difference is enough to make users very upset.
Saris 4y ago
Given that Discord and Telegram are the go-to chat clients for a huge number of people, I suspect shiny new features are important to them. Even if they don't technically end up using them or really need them, it clearly helps get people using the platform. I use Telegram because of the stickers and generally great UI experience on both mobile and desktop. Even though I know Signal or Matrix are a better choice from a privacy/security standpoint.

Gigachad 4y ago

The stupid stuff is all important to someone. The stickers on telegram are the main reason furries use the platform over discord for example. And mobile platforms auto update now so while it’s possible there could be an old version out, not much effort is put in to making it work. Telegram shows a basic text showing the message is not supported on your version and prompts you to update. Even the stuff that is hardly a feature but more a UX prompt is important. Discord voice channels are not that much functionally different to traditional group calls, but that way they get used is dramatically different because the UX is. Imagine if someone bridged discord to some other IM app and when someone joins a voice channel, it starts a group call on the other app which opens a ringer on that persons phone. The compatibility is close enough right, but that minor difference is enough to make users very upset.

Saris 4y ago

Given that Discord and Telegram are the go-to chat clients for a huge number of people, I suspect shiny new features are important to them. Even if they don't technically end up using them or really need them, it clearly helps get people using the platform. I use Telegram because of the stickers and generally great UI experience on both mobile and desktop. Even though I know Signal or Matrix are a better choice from a privacy/security standpoint.