Whatsapp, we need to talk about your latest software update.

Dear Whatsapp,

This is an intervention.

I am one of your earlier converts. Back then you were still trying to beat BBM in popularity. It didn’t take long. You had the one thing BBM doesn’t have; cross-platform accessibility. Plus, your updates were always valuable; location sharing, desktop app, voice and video calls. You’re basically everything a good boyfriend should be; communicative, reliable, and trustworthy.

Until I saw your latest software update. The one with the Snapchat like video status. It’s like you forget who you are. Sure, a few months back your sister got knocked up with a similar update. Named it Insta-stories, had great success, whatever. But you’re not a social media platform created in the spirit of oversharing, you’re a communication solution. A free messenger app used for personal and business needs.

Having said that, your “video status” update is completely unnecessary. I can’t even remember the last time I changed my status on Whatsapp, moreover paid attention to other people’s Whatsapp status. All I care about is if they reply or not. Simple.

While this update offers no solution to your current user needs, you seem to neglect the very function of your entity. Letting your users live with problems like:

1. Having too many active group chats.
2. Unable to track specific information buried under months of chats.
3. Unable to respond to chats by importance, not by time.
4. Forgetting to reply to chats previously read.

If your R&D department had seen the way you’re being used, then I wouldn’t have to see that camera button snugly placed in the middle of the bottom nav bar with no added benefit to my chatting experience.

What I need is a way to mark which chat partner is important, a way to categorize chat groups, a way to bookmark a chat line to easily access in the future, a way to snooze a chat to reply later. These are the added values you need to focus on, not finding a way to sneak advertisement into the status section. If that is your plan with the status update.

Please Whatsapp, you’re not facebook, or instagram, or snapchat. You’re you. Please remember your whole reason for being. Remember what you had to go through to gain 1 billion users from all over the world. I stopped texting because of you, and I don’t wanna go back. Not now. Not after everything we went through.

So with that, I hope you’ll read this and somehow get to the update we will actually enjoy.

Sincerely yours,

Johanna