Hi Sam, I saw this pop up on Twitter today… great post.
To comment on this:
When it comes to “integrating” chat I see a few directions I would like to explore:
- A richer messaging system. Messages can act like chat a lot of the time, they often involve rapid and somewhat raw conversation that are unfocused. It is a balancing act, cause it could be very onerous to be forced into chat with everyone the messages you. That said, in many cases chat can be perfect.
I wonder if there are a few other elements for chat:
- No topic. Messages between users are just the message. Even simpler.
- Smaller window for writing. Implies the message will be shorter (vs. paragraph style). This also allows the discussion to remain visible while replying (vs the input box and keyboard taking up the screen when replying) and for the ‘post’ button to be more prominent (when you start typing in WhatsApp, a little arrow appears next to the text you’ve typed).
- Fast notifications. On the app, the caching can mean a significant delay between new post and the app icon badge updating - vs. the sense of ‘instantaneous’ updates for WhatsApp/Slack.
My amateur understanding is that this cluster of UI elements supports the chat experience.