Beyond Messaging and Fancy Texting Features

Instead of creating new things to make life easier for people, wouldn’t it be wonderful to make their experiences better with the products they already use?

Yes! I am a slave to my phone and of course I am addicted to messaging. I am texting my friends, my family, strangers even though most of the time, I have little solid information to communicate.

I am just texting because I am bored and simply want to try out features in the new texting app I just downloaded. And why wouldn’t I be! There are so many interesting and intuitive apps that designers like me are creating out there.

And it doesn’t stop with that: I keep getting attracted to constant cool and fun updates. It’s like I am in an amusement park and I want to go on all the rides even though I know I am going to throw up when I go on that giant roller coaster!

All that aside, I really want to thank Matti Makkonen — Inventor of ‘text message’, for creating a wonderful way of communicating snippets of messages. And since I spend so much time on it, I might as well have some features on it which provide some utility value. There are some really cools apps like whatsapp, snapchat, wechat, youchat, ichat and the list goes on; having unique features which set them apart from each other. I really wish there were some simple but useful features too.

1. Archiving individual messages

I use imessage and whatsapp a lot and there is an option available for archiving an entire conversation. But there should be an option where the user can save a specific message. Here is why,

1. I share an apartment with 3 other people and everyone should have my bank account details and I should be having their bank account details, but I don’t and neither do they. And every time, we ask each other and the other person goes through a hassle of trying to find it.
2. There have been instances where I liked a quote or a motivational message that my friend had sent and I copy the message and save it onto my notes app available in my phone.
3. My mom sends me a list of things to do and then we have a long chat. And I obviously forget to run those errands and I realize it after a few days and I diligently start searching for that message.
4. I go to my Aunt’s house every month and every time before I start, I ask for her address — thanks to my forgetful memory.

So, I would love to have a feature where you can save a specific message to a folder like in email. It seems like such a simple concept to adopt but will go a long way to help people.

2. Grouping messages

This is a feature some of my friends and I would like to see. A feature where you can group consecutive messages together. Here is why,

1. One of our roommate goes to a supermarket and pings us in our whatsapp group asking us if there is anything we would like for her to buy. Instantly, there are single word messages bombarding the group with some extra fluff and her attempt of trying to copy and paste all the items to her list has gone for a toss. Because, I mean who has the time to copy each and every message and paste it in the notes. She might as well go to the store and scour through the messages whilst bumping into aisles and shoppers.
2. I get an internship, or the most epic thing just happened in my life and I start sending a series of excited messages to my friend. Only to realize a minute later that I want to send the same messages to my other friend and an another. I have a lot of friends. And I copy and paste each and every message I sent to the first friend or I just type out the same to all my friends and by that time, my excitement has died down and I wished I just called each and every person and spent an hour talking about other nonsensical stuff as well.

There is an option in whatsapp to forward a couple of messages, but they go as individual messages. There is also an option to copy a couple of messages too but you attempt to paste it somewhere, and it comes with additional details such as name, date, time in front of each message. Just wish there was a ‘shift+click click click’ type of feature on my phone. iPhone does a good job at grouping and forwarding messages.

3. Send messages later or at a particular time

Ah! The dream. Configuring your messages to send at a later time or at a particular time. Here is why,

1. I have a friend — I mean I have many friends, but I have this friend who is not so important but I still want to be a nice person and send him a birthday text at 12:00 am. Just hope I am awake though or I do not forget because I am watching ‘friends’.
2. I fought with my sister and I want to send her a long message I thought of —if she apologizes first. But I really like the story I built in my mind and want to send it after she apologizes. I go to notes and type out a message and save it.
3. I text my roommate to pick up a package from the leasing office and she responds back asking me to remind her tomorrow as she is out at that moment and the leasing office closes at 5:00 pm. Now this is a very tricky and highly failure-prone situation.

So, imagine how easy our life would be with this feature. Hold the ‘send’ button and a magical modal screen pops up with an option of scheduling a time for the message to be sent.

4. Create an event or add to the calendar

iPhone already does this — your friend sends you a date in any format, it prompts for you to create an event or view it on your calendar. But my user study has shown that not many people use it. And also, whatsapp should have it. Here is why,

1. I agree iPhone has the ‘create event’ feature, but all I want to do is to save the date to the calendar. Just save the date! Have a colored tile on my calendar with a word to remind me something is going to happen that day. I don’t want to fill out all the details in the event list. At least, not all the time.
2. My dad whatsapps me about a conference he wants me to attend on a date. I want to save it to my imaginary whatsapp calendar so that I can just swipe left someday and spot it.

800 million people use whatsapp and I am sure half of those people might want to save some event their friend or family member texted them about. So, this feature would be of great benefit to the users.

We as designers tend to create a lot of interesting and unique stuff. I recently read a book, ‘Stuffocation’ by James Wallman. It is about how we have enough of stuff and need experience more than ever. I completely agree with that. Instead of creating new things to make life easier for people, it would be wonderful to make their experiences better with the products they already use.

Have an inspiring day! And do let me know in the comments below if you have any other messaging system ideas.

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