Facebook Messages is an Attempt to Fix What’s Broken about Web Communication
Now that Facebook have announced their new messaging system, the reactions are pouring in: it has reinvented messaging; it’s trying to kill NYC start-up GroupMe; and of course, it might kill GMail.
But whether or not Facebook’s ‘Project Titan’ messaging revamp will kill anything is unclear. As with any new product – especially with Facebook – how people outside the tech world react is key.
But even if it’s a spectacular failure, Facebook’s new system is an attempt to fix what’s broken about electronic communication. While email, IM and texting were all boons when they were invented, they’ve become unwieldy and cumbersome, taking up too much time and requiring too much attention.
People have already spent a great deal of energy whining – saying things like they’d be too embarrassed to have a facebook.com email address – but Facebook’s solution to messaging is a big step forward
All Hail The Death of Email
Facebook messaging tackles one major problem: it turns email into a permission-based form of communication.
For years now, once you have given out your email address, it is always open to anyone who wants it. Like posting your phone number online, it means that you no longer have permission over who can contact you. This is why email is now broken: anyone can get in touch you, and most people with jobs or businesses are deluged with email. Sure, GMail Priority Inbox helped, but all it did was filter things, not lessen the amount of email you get.
One might argue that you could simply keep your address private. But anyone who works or does business online knows this isn’t an option. You have to make yourself available at some kind of email address. How else do you address clients, or get new business?
Think about how insane it is that people who don’t work in communications still spend half their day answering email, or that ‘Inbox Zero’ – meaning all messages in your inbox are read – is now so rare that it’s a thing people celebrate.
By allowing filtering of messages to either Facebook friends or friends of friends, Facebook have essentially tackled one of email’s biggest problems: there is too much of it, and too much from people and organizations you don’t care about. Messaging becomes a closed loop between people who know each other, not a deluge of information simply thrown at anyone and everyone. You can open up your inbox and get straight to the things you want, not what other people want you to see.
It is, at least as an idea about where messaging is going, a sign of better things to come.
Bringing Together The Fragments
If real estate is all about location, then 21st century web services are all about aggregation, aggregation, aggregation.
Facebook Messages unifies messaging across various platforms, centralizing your communication in a single place. This is great. While we usually communicate with work partners and clients through one form – say phone or email – we communicate with our actual friends and family through multiple forms: texts, chats, emails, phone calls etc.
By aggregating all of these activities together, Facebook makes it much easier to keep track of all those threads. I know I can’t be alone in making plans with people over text, email and the phone – by putting them all in one place (voice calls will be coming later), Facebook is tackling the other major problem of communication: fragmentation.
Even more neat is the idea that you can produce a narrative of your history with someone. Sure, that’ll be hell for when you break up with someone – but then, that’s what delete buttons are for.
A Murky Future: Will FB Ruin a Good Thing?
Now, all I’m saying is that this is a promising sign that someone is thinking about what’s broken in messaging today.
Facebook’s attempts are always a bit sketchy, and this is no different. There are bound to be privacy issues, and it’s useless to anyone who doesn’t want to use Facebook. That said, the idea behind these changes is solid, as it will make communicating easier and more straightforward.
What do you think of the new changes to Facebook? Could you see yourself using it? And what might some problems be with the new approach?
If you want to know my professional opinion, Facebook cant even fix their broken site. I know several users that are currently “locked out, or blocke out, or the account has been deactivated” No they aint spammers, They are grade school kids, and adults. No they didnt add to many friends, or lie about who they are, and no they didnt spam anyone. My original account has been locked out for over 6 months, my issue is I added my cell phone #, Facebook asked me to verify it with a text, which went well, The next day I was trying to log in,when I did, I was redirected to a Facebook verification screen, It told me I needed to verify my cell number, So I entered it again, The page loads for a sec, then tells me that my cell number has already been verified, I get taken back to a login screen where the process starts over again. I have since made a different account, and re added all my friends. The original account is still stuck in the never ending loop. When you try to access facebook help, to possibly email someone, its non exsistant. I have posted on the facebook help page, however there is no answer that helps me, nor is there any way of contacting facebook directly. Other people I know (my sister, my ex girlfriends daughter, who knows how many, all have the same problem of not being able to get facebook to correct the errors. ( we all dont have the exact same symptoms, the symptoms range from accound disabled, to a request for personal information to prove they are who they say they are. ( they are both under 18,) My sister was given an oppertunity to identify one of her friends to prove the account belonged to her, and the picture that was chosen was a blurry photo of what appeared to be an elbow. People dont realize that who ever is writing facebook is worthless at scripting, and that if you have an issue with logging into facebook your pritty much on your own. I cant wait to see what happens when a lot of people try to use the new mail, and realize that they are screwed, when something goes wrong. Facebook needs to get a clue seriously. Facebook will fall, when the web turns into a different direction, just as MySpace has. Out with the old and in with the new..
This article reads like something from Facebook’s PR department.
If Facbook’s un-intuitive and frustrating website layout is any indicator, their email won’t be much better.
Sorry, you’ll never get me away from my Gmail account, it works perfectly with 5 addon pop3 accounts and zero spam.
Well said. Gmail is the way to go. I have been using Gmail now for 5 years and I have tried every email service out there. Gmail is by far the best. No spam, ability to hook up in 3rd party mail apps for no charge and lightning transfer speeds for larger emails and file attachments. Not to mention the archived message backup you have online even if your computer that houses your mail app disintegrates! 🙂
If you read http://lifehacker.com/5690722/why-you-shouldnt-switch-your-email-to-facebook ‘Facebook Messages Is Not Email, and Can’t Be’ section, i think they are on the money writing FB e-mails are just FB messages outside FB.
Sorry to interrupt but since I don’t really have any friends, none of my submissions will ever get any attention:
Will somebody please do something about this??
I stronly contest the opinion that the old systems have “become unwieldy and cumbersome, taking up too much time and requiring too much attention.”
They have not ‘become’ anything!
What has happened is there is a new player on the block who is useless when you need to message someone who is not on Facebook.