Read receipts. They’re the first thing I turn off when I get a new messaging app or iOS device. But Facebook is doubling down on read receipts in the new Facebook Messenger, which has new, blisteringly fast notifications showing you exactly what’s going on with your message after you send it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byRmBN2QUxc
Messaging’s an interesting UI challenge. When you send a message to someone, you’re really just dropping a small note into a bottle and tossing it into the ocean of the web. A lot of people value things like read receipts in a messaging client because it gives a sender assurance nothing has gone wrong in the middle
The new Facebook Messenger takes that to the next level with FacePile read receipts: slick, quick animations that play when your message is sending, sent, delivered, or read. Facebook’s Product Manager Lexi Franklin said, “What were really want is Messenger to feel like the fastest and most reliable mobile messaging product”.
Although I personally feel that read receipts are something of an imposition into my privacy, I think Facebook’s on to something here: fundamentally, all messenger services all do the same thing. It’s the security, speed, and all around polish of the experience that makes you choose one Messaging service over another. If Facebook Messenger can become the slickest messaging app around, it’ll probably become the most popular.
Source: Techcrunch
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
6 responses to “Facebook Messenger gets the slickest read receipts in town”
I don’t see it. Are they different colors? Doesn’t help us color blind folks.
Congratulations! You’ve won the award for the dumbest comment!
“If Facebook Messenger can become the slickest messaging app around, it’ll probably become the most popular.”
There’s just one problem with that theory: Facebook isn’t popular to everyone especially 20-somethings and under. Many social media users under the age of 20 even consider having a Facebook account to be incredibly unpopular.
Having said that the feature does look pretty cool but I just don’t see this converting people to using Messenger unless they already have a Facebook account and even then it’ll likely be a struggle.
popular in my country (Ph) even with 14yo’s
I have honestly wondered what that weird new circle symbol is supposed to mean. “Delivered”, okay. Call me old-school, but I prefer iMessage’s text labels “sent” and delivered”. The “read” thing with the avatars is clever, though.
Google Chat has had this for like 2 years or so? The only thing it is missing is the slick little animation flourishes.