What kind of communication tools do we need?

Now, every week there is a new chat tool out, and see WhatsApp get 8 million dollars in a round of financing, I believe that both developers and VC believe that a market opportunity is, in the mobile internet era, a completely based on mobile devices, And make full use of its ability to design communication tools is a great market opportunity. So what kind of communication tools do we need in the mobile internet age?

What happened when I was using WhatsApp?

So I want to do some description and sharing about WHATSAPP first as a user's personal experience.

--whatsapp is one of the four apps I've put in the dock bar, the most common tool.

--whatsapp friend 40+ (Address Book Friends 400 or so, in other words more than 1/10) more important that most of these are not industry insiders, this is critical, 40+ most of the users of the iphone although also support Android, this friend number is slow and steady growth.

-I interact with my friends on a daily basis with more than 10 photos and WhatsApp.

-Watch WHATSAPP's performance in the App Store, both in the US and in China, and the Kik is long gone (even in America).

--90% Friend's WhatsApp is recommended by a friend installation, and often recommend more than 2 times before they will go to buy this 1-knife software, but after the typical experience is pretty good!

--kik was once synonymous with this type of software, but the obvious stamina, especially in China, has not really been up, using users only in the insider.

At first glance, WHATSAPP is a very robust development, the most typical based on the Address book, support pictures, video, voice, address sharing, and group functions of a chat tool. Continue to share some of the thoughts of individuals using WHATSAPP and similar products.

Sharing is not just about sharing

This is rich content sharing + Live chat brings a completely different experience.

Picture sharing, every day will send a lot, with close friends, but the biggest difference with the traditional QQ chat tools is that the content and motivation of the picture sharing has changed a lot, in WhatsApp we are mostly taking photos, such as what you eat, what you see good clothes, and will immediately feedback well, If my next definition of this motivation, sharing photos is a real-world interaction, this is unthinkable in traditional chat tools.

To further explain this definition, often in the WhatsApp use of the scene, is that you take a photo of the Kindle device you just bought, the other side is likely to give you a picture of his Kindle device, this time the picture is living in lieu of text, reflected in the radiation of the way of communication.

Another similar situation, in the group, or between two people, by sharing the address of the way to greet. When you share an address, respondents often share the same address. This time the meaning of the map is done by a click to do something like where I am. A long string of words, this is a typical example of discarding text and helping to communicate in a more realistic way.

Mobile phone as a capability equipment, as a perfect situational interaction capabilities of the device, it gives the simple sharing function of the new meaning of chat is real-time + real interaction.

Chatting is more than just chatting

Remember in the QQ era, we often have such a dialogue:

A: What are you doing:

B: I'm surfing the Internet.

The meaning behind this is that you chat is a state, is an event, is a steady state, pointing to the online life. The answer to the phone conversation will be different:

A: What are you doing:

B: I'm driving/subway/meeting/party/running (all point to the real life)

In other words, mobile devices are based on real-world interactions, and Color's CEO says that their mobile phone's social (not Facebook's avatar social, my understanding is similar) phone may be half true to you, you are offline, a lot of location, lenses, voice Recording the way that this expansion of mobile capabilities extends, gives such an opportunity, we are not chatting for chat, such tools can be seamless and convenient implantation into our lives. The distance from the line to the line may be blurred, I think this is the Internet, is the ultimate goal of any innovative product to think about how we can help real life.

What kind of communication tools do we need?

There is a discussion on the question of "what kind of mobile communication the Chinese users need", which is summed up to be any time, any place, any object, any information. This is the most necessary way of communication, I think it is very good!

My understanding of the ideals of the future is that we can input the output in the most convenient way for any information, most in accordance with the form of the motivation of the behavior itself, to the most appropriate information framework to pass.

No one will be able to experience typing fun to use text chat, typing on the touch screen chat, is a nightmare (if BB9700 can use 70 points, the iPhone up to 30 points), but we have no choice. We are in front of the computer every day, but we have to hold the phone to type back to text messages, this is a very bad experience.

On the other hand the complexity of the mobile phone's use situation will produce a lot of inconvenient to listen, inconvenient to see, inconvenient typing, inconvenient to talk about the uncertainty, how to simplify the input and output of the way, if the diversity of our input and output, or even graphic words, with a more realistic way to restore the replacement of our original text, We can do all these things. Think about why we want to cottage, because too many things waiting for us to perfect.

WHATSAPP is an explorer, or it may be unconscious, or it is programmed to create demand, but I believe it must have been a practitioner on this path. But there are so many things we can think about and improve.

It is obvious that the capabilities and usage features of mobile terminals, and their relationships with users, bring a new interpretation to simple chat scenarios.

--instant message can have a new solution, not only the Instant of communication and feedback, the real-time nature of more communication topics, called Instant Topic, people are more willing to communicate the situation of current reality situation, chat is not only chat, but really based on the real situation of an interactive

In the mobile chat process, users will increasingly rely on the scene of the shooting, recording or location of the multiplex realistic data expression to replace the text. With the ability of initial situational communication, the content of this change is situational.

--the complex situation and uncertainty of the actual situation, the input and output dependence will have a greater change, need more adaptable to the situation of the flexible tools to integrate, such as a typing B voice seamless integration, perhaps we need TTS and other technologies to help us

--When information about geographic location can be completely and seamlessly embedded throughout the conversation, intuition tells me that the middle as a big, can bring new time and space imagination, can obviously feel that mobile communication compared to QQ chat, communication between the object of the relationship is more likely based on actual events and specific situations, This is also a lot of Yobongo, color class based on the reality of interactive tools are expected, these are in our communication tools will also occur.

--Situational communication, the new meaning of chatting tools, so that interaction is more and more close to our reality, not only the relationship, really become a practical tool.