Mobile Messaging applications Future development direction: Privacy Encryption and payment

Mobile messaging applications are usually quite large in volume, according to the Guardian's website. The number of active users in the WhatsApp is more than 600 million, with more than 500 million active users on the same sibling Facebook Messenger, and a number of microblogging active users of 468 million.

These are just the Big Macs of mobile messaging apps. The number of users for Snapchat, Viber, KakaoTalk, line, Kik, Tango, BBM, and other mobile messaging applications has also reached 8 or 9-digit levels, with Apple imessage for iOS users only. Mobile messaging applications have also been emerging as Yik Yak and yo.

What is the future direction of mobile messaging applications? In addition to adding voice chat, video chat and other functions, there are four main directions that are not mutually exclusive: privacy, payment, media and advertising.

All mobile messaging applications have the same goal: attract more new users, retain existing users, and find ways to generate revenue that are not in conflict with the top two goals. Here's a simple analysis of how they achieve these goals:

Privacy and encryption

There are two very different types of mobile messaging applications: One is the user's many mainstream mobile messaging applications, the other is the main privacy and security card, including TextSecure, Telegram, Hemlis, Threema, Wickr and so on.

One of the most notable signs of this change is that WhatsApp recently announced the addition of End-to-end encryption to the Android version, which will then add the same functionality to the iOS version. WhatsApp's partner is a company that develops TextSecure, Open Whisper Bae, which says the partnership is "the largest end-to-end cryptographic communication technology deployment in history".

The goal of this technology is to reassure users that even if the messaging application provider wants to share information with the intelligence agencies, they cannot. This has been the selling point of Apple imessage. Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, said in an interview in September that "even if the government is holding a court summons requesting access to imessage information, we cannot provide it, imessage information is encrypted and we do not have a key." ”

Another important trend associated with privacy and messaging applications is that not only are big-name manufacturers more concerned about privacy, they are also facing public scrutiny. The Viber of the main security card has been confronted with this problem. Researchers said in April that Viber does not encrypt photos and videos, including when they are stored on the network. Viber quickly solved the problem. Even the WhatsApp deployment of cryptographic technology has raised concerns about how Facebook handles message metadata.

Payment and shopping

Chatting with friends, exchanging photos and videos is a core feature of mobile messaging applications, but paying-whether it's a transfer to a friend or a company selling a product-is a new direction for mobile messaging applications.

Snapchat recently published Snapcash with the payment company Square, where users can register their credit cards in square and use Snapcash to transfer money to their friends ' bank accounts.

Although the Snapcash is currently open only to American users over the age of 18, there are still some concerns-such as the purchase of pornographic services. But this new feature may be a key element in Snapchat's collaboration with vendors and advertising companies.

Facebook will also make payments a key element of Facebook Messenger as soon as possible. Facebook hired former president of PayPal, David Marcus, to serve as news product director in June. "I will try to develop new and important products," Marcus said at the time. "In October, the leaked screenshots showed that the new product developed by Marcus could be a feature that allows users to register their credit cards and debit cards with Facebook and then transfer them to friends via Messenger.

In China, mobile messaging and payment fusion are no longer news. Micro-letters have been exploring business since 2013, when micro-letters added to the ability to connect bank accounts to their applications, facilitating users to buy from companies with micro-credit partners.

Micro-letters have also been allowing users to transfer money between the so-called "micro-letter Red envelopes" during the Spring Festival. In Japan, Line has released line mall apps-more like ebay services that connect buyers and sellers.

There will be a lot of cooperation between mobile messaging applications and payment companies in the coming months--dasher recently reached a partnership agreement with can and may have experimented with integrating Bitcoin and other virtual currencies in messaging applications.

Media cooperation

One of the big trends in mobile messaging applications is that, especially for young users, these are their main social networks: Even with Facebook accounts, they spend a lot of time on WhatsApp and Snapchat.

The user's willingness to obtain media content through mobile messaging applications is a problem for mobile messaging applications. In Asia, mobile gaming and messaging have been "holding hands", and line and KakaoTalk gaming networks have brought huge profits to the two companies and their developers ' partners.

In the west, Snapchat's media ambitions are interesting. The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Snapchat has been developing a channel for its application, releasing "video, News and advertising." The product will allow users to read daily publications, watch TV shows or movie clips by placing their fingers on a mobile device display.

Digiday November reported leaked images of Snapchat's new features, revealing the latter's media partners--vice, BuzzFeed, ESPN, Spotify, Cosmopolitan and MailOnline.

BuzzFeed is at the center of this trend. BuzzFeed has unveiled a partnership with micro-letters, launched an official account, "posted the highest-popularity content on the Web" to users, and earlier this year recruited an employee dedicated to integration with mobile messaging applications.

"There are a lot of users using mobile messaging-our theory is that there will be a large number of people using mobile messaging to communicate and share media content in the future," BuzzFeed told the tech blog website TechCrunch. Getting involved in this area early and figuring out how users can share media content is really important for BuzzFeed's future. ”

Attempts are the driving force of all these companies. Spotify collaborated with Tango to help users share their music with their friends in the latter's application, and later released a music photo-sharing application called Tango music pix.

Public figures are trying. Paul McCartney's fans over line Twitter,viber trying to "recruit" stars for a feature called public chats, Kik was used by One direction to communicate with fans.

Advertising

Then there is the advertising, which is the basis for mobile messaging applications to enter payments/business and media fields. Snapchat10 Month released the advertising service, and posted that its advertising service will not "disturb" users, "ads will appear in the user's ' latest update ' channel, users can choose whether to see ads. Don't worry, the ad will disappear within 24 hours after the user looks at it. We do not play ads in the user's personal message, such as snaps or chats. We hope that the experiment will provide an interesting and rewarding experience.

Kik is also trying to integrate ads into users ' chat messages without disturbing users, and launched a feature called "Promotional chat" (Promoted chats) in November. Users may see promotional messages when referring to "keywords" related to the brand they are interested in.

Some mobile messaging applications are still firmly opposed to advertising. Viber boss Talmon Marco last year said, "We do not accept advertising to users." "WhatsApp CEO Koum in 2012 in a" Why we do not sell ads "(Why we don ' t sell ads) The post clearly stated its view: Advertising will distract engineers," damage the beauty of the product, insult the user's IQ, Interrupt the user's thinking. "

Despite being bought by Facebook, the policy is still valid. But a key trend in mobile messaging applications over the next few years will be how WhatsApp rivals can dabble in sensitive areas such as branding and advertising without scaring off users.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)