Wrinkl Introduces @@mention℠ for Group Messaging

Now users can @mention privately in group chat channels

Group chat users are very familiar with @mention. Senders @mention someone in a message when it’s relevant to the group but is especially pertinent to the @mentioned member.

Unfortunately, due to lack of a good alternative, users are forced to employ @mention in situations it wasn’t intended for and in which it doesn’t work well. For example, @mention is often used to send messages that arise from the group discussion but that are pertinent to only the @mentioned member.

Why don’t users just DM in these situations? Because DMs won’t achieve the purposes of sending the message in the first place:

1. Immediacy. Often the @mentioned member needs to see the message now, while it’s relevant to the active conversation.
2. Context. DMs come without context. Often the @mentioned member will only fully understand the message within the context of the group conversation. DMing “I don’t agree, can we talk?” will mean nothing hours later or a week from now.
3. Switching Channels. The sender could recreate the context after switching channels to send a DM, but that means time away from the active group conversation and then figuring out what suffices as context. Many users choose to forego the opportunity. Instead they simply post @mention messages to the whole group that are meant for only one member. And if the message is uncomfortable to have everyone see, would-be-senders may let valid points go, and stay silent.
4. Conversations Fragmented Across Channels. DMing group members spreads group discussions across many channels. Users want to keep conversations in one place, one channel, the one it’ll be logical to look for them later. Fragmented discussions cause painful later reconstruction and frustrating searches across channels for what’s sought. These are a couple of the big drawbacks of group messaging for business use.
5. Channel Clutter. All of these posted-to-the-group but meant-for-one-person @mentions create problems, too, within each individual group channel: they are a source of channel clutter. Users should be able to read a conversation straight through, not cluttered with @mentions intended for others or that aren’t germane to the conversation itself.

In addition to these @mention-or-DM conundrums — unresolvable since neither achieves the sender’s goals and both create their own set of problems — is the paramount issue of privacy.

Privacy. In a group discussion when members have something truly private to message a particular member, something relevant now or that needs context to be understood, they are really up a tree: DMs don’t provide context and @mentions don’t provide privacy. To date, there’s been no good option for privately messaging a group member about issues being discussed right now in an active group chat conversation.

Now there is — and it’s simple, logical and utterly intuitive.

Wrinkl introduces @@mention℠ (a.k.a. Double@ mention℠ or simply @@℠). By @@mentioning a member in your message, the message is posted in the channel — but is visible only to the member mentioned and the sender.

It’s that easy.

Now you can message privately within any group channel.

With @@mention, let a colleague know immediately, privately, in context that their just-posted message was mistaken — without embarrassing them. Add a caveat without contradicting someone publicly. Make suggestions or ask for offline discussion. Constructively criticize — without backlash or risk of a public back-and-forth. Inform the member who just thanked Sally for a job well done, that Joe assisted and should be thanked too. Send a member that phone number they’ve just asked the group for, noting it’s a private number and shouldn’t be shared further. Only the sender and @@mentioned member will see any of these — and in just their respective view of the group channel, where such messages belong and have context.

@mention to call your message out to a member.

@@mention to do it privately.

Channel Clutter Redux. All those @mentions discussed above clogging your channels? Channel etiquette and sender preference will convert many to @@mentions now, for conversations that really flow.

It’s no coincidence that Wrinkl’s patent pending @@mention functionality addresses privacy and the other issues listed above. These issues and others have motivated Wrinkl’s innovations from our inception. From References, to Email Integration, to Request Private Replies, to 1:1 Sidebars, Lists, Bundles, At-a-Glance and more, and now with @@mention, Wrinkl is making group messaging usable for business.

See @@mention in action: https://vimeo.com/453092183

To inquire about licensing @@mention or any other of Wrinkl’s patented or patent pending innovations, please contact us at wrinkl-ip@wrinkl.com.

About Wrinkl www.wrinkl.com

Wrinkl provides businesses with a messaging solution that reduces clutter, distills what’s important, and supplies the tools to act on it — all without leaving the conversation. With Wrinkl, conversation is action — not distraction.