Facebook Messager
Today, I want to talk about facebook messager. I think it is the right time to talk about it because yesterday I was the first time to invite into a group and began to communicate with others in Messager.
First, let us talk about messager whether it is a Facebook messager or it is a Messager. We all knew that Facebook is built on the circle which means it first started in the familiar surrounding persons, like your classmates, your roommates and then your colleagues. This is the starting point of Facebook. It is quite different from twitter. Twitter is built on anonymous which means it really tried to connect every person you want. You can never achieve this on Facebook because it is a mutual agreement mechanism. Therefore, how does the Messager handle this kind of concept? How does Message embed this concept into the product design?
Let us first imagine what you will do with your classmates or any familiar person in the real situation. What is the difference between the behavior you talk with unfamiliar or even strangers?
In the real situation, we will start a conversion quickly and go directly into the topic with friends. We will make jokes or show our personal identity in a close relationship. We feel free and talk with each other in the easiest way.
When we talk strangers, things will be a little different, we will have our standard face and show standard identity. We will have some major topic or something, then we start to talk with strangers.
Therefore, let us dive into the Messager to see what it looks like.
Messenger only has two tabs. One is Chats. The other is People. In the chats, you will have chats history with the group or the person you talked about before. Also, there is stories entrance whether you can add your stories to share with others. The search function upside can search the group members, friends, and even the messages.
In the people page, it has been divided into two parts — stories and active. In the stories page, you can add your stories which are the same function in the chats story part. On the active page, you can talk with friends online.
Actually, the overall Messager product design is a mess. I do not know whether other people have such kind of feeling. The lacks a kind of consistency from top to bottom.
Let us see the messy points in the Messager.
In the chats view, you can search the persons offline to leave a message. in people's views, you can only talk with the people who are online. What is the difference between online or offline if Messager means just deliver a message. It makes sense that we only talk with the people surrounding us in reality but why can combine the online-offline friends together which convey the Messager is a message — an easy way to talk with friends rather than use different portal to talk with friends online or offline.
In addition, in the chats view, the active friends will show besides the added story. It is a little weird because there is a less common characteristic between add stories and sees who is online. If in this place it exists online friends you can chat why there is an active tab in the people pages.
Furthermore, what is the ambition that messager wants to achieve? Is it just a sister of Facebook? I can understand in the mobile platform, it could be divided the personal chat from the social sharing facebook. But should it be so related to Facebook itself? Why can messager stand it own way without too relying on her mother? These questions I will explore more later.
Second, let us talk about the frustration I first encounter in the Messager.
Third, let us talk about design which I think it lost its function in the Messager — ambiguous and relevance.
