Messaging App: Through the Years

Our first taste at sending short messages to each other, Short Messaging Services also known as SMSes. Back in the day, people would buy monthly SMS packs to ensure free SMSes. This ensured that you don’t pay extra for each and every message sent. Every message you sent tried to maintain a constant balance between number of free messages left and the number of days for the pack to expire.

And now it is hard to believe that once upon a time we had more important human conversations than just marketing material and updates. But, there was.
Humans interacted via text messages, the conversations might not have been too long but it meant something else to convey everything in a message that was bound by 160 characters to ensure word/emotion maximization.
Times have changed and people gradually moved to different applications to interact with fellow humans. And hence we got the text message revolution.
At any given point you will have more commercial messages on your mobile phone than personal text. But how about the interface of the application. It’s stayed similar over the years and across different operating systems. Sure, we added images to contacts some time back but like I said before, you hardly ever get human text messages.
So I thought, the commercial revolution has happened how long do we wait for a different functional use of the application? Well, not too long since I am on it.
With MIUI 8, we announced a feature to organize your messages so that you don’t miss those rare human SMSes by segregating promotional messages and updates under Notifications in the Messaging App.

This cleared up a lot of space in the messaging app as people had their most important messages in a clutter-free zone.
Now let’s talk about what you see when you see a text message. The same old interface that prompts you to “Reply” to the text message. When was the last time you replied to a bank notification? Or to the airlines when they tell you that the web check-in is now open?
So, here’s us saying “No More!” to this age-old interface, introducing Quick Action Buttons. These buttons prompt you for things related to the nature of the message. So, the next time you get your mobile bill, you get two options:-
- you pay the bill by directly heading to their website/app by the click on one button
OR
- you can set up a reminder in your calendar so that you pay in time to avoid the late fees.

Change is the only constant. SMSes are here to stay, please embrace the new interface to ensure that it’s being used at its best capacity.
The through the years series looks at apps, behaviors, mobile features and how they have evolved over the years/ROMs. If you have a topic suggestion for MIUI, write to us in the comments below or tweet to us at MIUI India.
