A couple of days ago I logged into facebook to find that they had updated their messaging system. At first it seemed like they had just implemented a handful of UI improvements but after a few days passed I noticed a few subtle but ingenious features. This post will outline the ones I’ve noticed so far and I’ll provide my thoughts. Being a usability enthusiast, I’ll approach much of this from a convenience and UX perspective.
1. SMS integration
While signing up, facebook asked me if I wanted to receive updates via my phone. Desiring to test-drive the new system I happily opted in (at this point I didn’t realize that not everyone has been invited into the new messaging system). Soon enough I started receiving notices as new “friends” would connect with me. I wasn’t super excited because I was afraid that the notifications would annoy me- something that hasn’t happened as of yet. So what are the bullets for the SMS integration?
Friend Notifications
When someone friends you, you’ll receive a notification and can optionally text back “info” to have FB respond with some basic information about your new friend. There is also an option to “follow” the person.
Status Updates
With the new system, FB provides a special SMS # where you can prop your status updates. I know this feature already existed but it’s a lot more discoverable now.
Message Notifications
This one is my favorite features so far. Essentially when someone sends you a message, facebook notifies you with a text message. If the message is longer it may cut off some of the text but I’ve found that it get most of it.
What if you want to respond to the message though? Intuition would say, “well just text back”- intuition is right.
This is revolutionary! With this innovation facebook seamlessly merges two communication channels and the user ends up forgetting that they’re even using facebook’s messaging system.
Implications
Opening up the door for an SMS interface has multiple implications. I’ll just throw two of them out there. For starters, users without smartphones are able to use all of the features listed above that they’d otherwise have no access to. In a world where not everyone embraces new technology, facebook has again opened itself up to a wider “non-desktop” audience.
Additionally, an SMS interface allows me to have one less communication channel. Who doesn’t experience the pain of having 20 different proverbial “inboxes”? And yet you need them in a world where just one app can’t seem to get the job done. At the end of the day we use gmail, texting, facebook and our phones to do a simple task. Communicate. With this update facebook has sided in favor with the human and has innovated after carefully observing it’s subject… us. Am I scared about how much facebook knows about me? Well that’s a whole nother’ discussion! (yes).
2. A facebook.com Email Address?
This one caught me off guard. As I opted into the new system facebook asked me if I wanted to reserve a facebook.com email. Again, wanting to be an early adopter, I grabbed the suggested email joe.ardeeser@facebook.com with delight.
This comes as a timely feature as I was just chatting with a friend about some junior highers that he knows. He was telling me that some of them don’t even have email addresses. They simply sign up for facebook with their parent’s email address and use their facebook inbox for all of their communication. Intriguing…
So what does this mean? Is facebook trying to get into the email space? Well, that’s a stupid question. Of course – but at what level? Will facebook compete with gmail some day? Can they? The competition between the 3 giants (google, apple and facebook) seems to get fiercer every day. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
3. Aggregated Facebook Communication Channels
I’m not sure if I’ve seen the full scope of this one yet but it’s definitely cool. With the new system you get one communication thread for each friend. This thread combines all of your pre-existing messages and your chats with that friend.
The “See Friendship” Feature
Facebook has created this new feature called “See Friendship”. The new “one-thread-per-user” message system follows this same kind of thinking. If I’m visiting one of my friends profiles I can click on “See Friendship” and it will show me for that friend:
- All of our communications
- Photos that we’re both in
- Events that we both attended
- Common “likes”
In doing this, facebook affords me an online, easily accessible “memory lane”. It automatically tells the story of all of my friendships. Something unimaginable years ago. No longer must you toil with history-keeping if you desire to capture life. Facebook does it automatically and often by proxy through your friends.
My round about point is that with the new messaging system, it follows suit. I just locate my friend under my messages and all at once I have every bit of communication that I’ve had with that person (well all fb emails and chats). At first it’s a bit strange to see interactions from years ago on the same page as recent communication but now that I’ve marinated on it a bit, it’s really cool (and humorous).
Perhaps We’re Not Fighting Gmail?
No doubt that if this is how the facebook messaging system will continue to work, it’s a hard argument to say that facebook would try and replace gmail. Facebook email lacks the features that an enterprise email solution requires. It would be terrible if gmail did what I just described. With some of my client emails the page would be infinite in length and terribly hard to work with.
But there must be something here. Facebook time and time again has pushed itself into different markets with a definite agenda. Why would I use google picasa if my social world lives on facebook? Why would I use evite when all of my contacts are already on facebook? The more the FB story unravels, the more they seem to be creating an Internet of their own. From advertising to game and video hosting to 3rd party apps that can be easily refurbished for non-facebook use, innovation is the unmistakable facebook signature.
Closing Thoughts
Creating great features with good usability requires an intimate knowledge of real-world users. It’s much like a man with binoculars honing in on a rare species. He must look closely and make astute observations in order to understand his subject. Great software design always has it’s binoculars on.
Facebook has the world in it’s database and they’re more than aware of that. With each new chapter they continued to design for the human and as they do they have a monopoly on all of the new design patterns. They have a unique ability to teach the world new ways to use the internet and as they do many of us are left wondering what will come of facebook when it’s run it’s course. Will facebook become another myspace- forgetting what it even stands for? Well that’s any easy one… no. I guess we’ll just have to watch and see…
