ShatChat: How Facebook's Bizarre Obsession With Snapchat Is Ruining User Experience On Messenger (500ish.com)

Columnist MG Siegler writes: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." I often find myself pointing to this quote from Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park. It's just so succinctly perfect for so many things. This week's example: Facebook Messenger's new 'Day' functionality. [...] They've [Facebook] decided to weaponize all of these networks [Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram], user experience be damned. On Messenger, people have their list of contacts and/or groups that they chat with. The most recent conversations -- likely the most important -- are at the top of that feed. But if you're anything like me, you're often scrolling down a bit because you have many regular conversations. And so this screen real estate is insanely valuable. And Messenger puked up this new 'Day' nonsense all over it. Yes, people share photos on Messenger. Undoubtedly a ton. That's maybe how you try to justify this move to yourself if you're Facebook. But Messenger is fundamentally about chatting; it's a utility. Photos may be additive, but they're not core. You could try to pivot your service into making them core, but that doesn't mean you should.As of last year, Facebook Messenger has over a billion active users.

Comments

"But Messenger is fundamentally about chatting; it

[DogDude]

No. Messenger is fundamentally about mining data.

Facebook doesn't give a flying fuck what you or anybody else things about Messenger or any of their software, so long as people continue to give them all of their personal information for free.

So don't use it, dumbass

[realmolo]

Seriously, nobody that isn't a teenager or an emotionally stunted adult uses ANY of those things.

The idea that you *need* to use all of these "messenger" apps is ridiculous. You don't need to be in constant, *pointless* communication with your friends. Or your coworkers.

Just turn that shit off, and get on with your lives. Eliminating the endless, ego-boosting "small-talk" that these apps provide is good for your soul.

Re:So don't use it, dumbass

[BronsCon]

I dare say that moderation belongs on the comment I was replying to. That poster's ego kept him from seeing that the comment he was replying to was not directed at him and made him reply as though he were under attack.

Re:So don't use it, dumbass

[pr0fessor]

I've used all kinds of messenger applications over the years at work... I especially like the ones that will allow me remote control.

You messed the same thing up for the 5th time this week? Give me control and I'll fix it real quick.

The real problem: Millennials can't design UIs.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is just a small example of the much bigger problem: Millennials, as a group, just cannot design and develop usable software UIs.

From the dawn of computing through to the mid-2000s, we saw an incremental progression in the functionality and usability of software UIs. New UIs were typically better than what preceded them.

Then between 2000 and 2010 we started seeing more and more Millennials get involved with software UI design as they started to enter the workforce. And everything went to hell.

This is a generation that has egos so big it makes the Boomers look modest! Millennials don't care about the past. They don't care about building on good ideas rather than bad. They don't care about what users want. They're so sure that their ideas are "right" that they force them on others.

So instead of continuing the work of previous generations, they just threw out all of this accumulated knowledge. They used their own self-proclaimed "great UI design ideas" and gave us awful UIs like those of Australis Firefox, of GNOME 3, of Windows 8 to 10, and of so many websites. Not caring what users actually think of these designs, they've never been responsive to feedback. It's just one bad idea after another with them.

Now before you start with the "shut up, gramps" and "get off my lawn" bullshit, I actually think that the generation after the Millennials may be able to rectify this awful situation. They've been victims of the Millennials shenanigans, but they also tend not to have the egos of Millennials. Many of them also have an interest in retro computing. It's an eyeopening experience for them when they use something like Windows 2000, and they find that its UI is actually more efficient and pleasant to use compared to the Windows 10 experience they're more familiar with.

This post-Millennial generation will be entering the workforce within the next 5 to 10 years. I hope that they can undo all of the nonsense that Millennials have done so that they can get back to what the generations before the Millennials were doing: steadily improving upon UIs that are functional and usable.

Re:The real problem: Millennials can't design UIs.

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

There is an uncomfortable amount of truth in this, especially the comments about Australis Firefox, GNOME 3, and Windows 8 to 10.

Many of them were so taken with the ability to code some interesting or novel UI feature that they never stopped to ask if "interesting" or "novel" was better than what was already in use. In most cases it wasn't.

Re:The real problem: Millennials can't design UIs.

[theArtificial]

I think you're confusing generations, Gen X is in power. As demonstrated by the Ribbon UI.

Re:The real problem: Millennials can't design UIs.

[brantondaveperson]

No - the real problem is that we expect all of this software to be written for us, usable user interfaces and background services ect etc, to be provided for free.

Free instant messaging, with bespoke applications for Android and iOS, and an extremely complex web application. We expect it all for nothing. And then, when the organisation that's producing all this, decides to modify it so that they can actually make some money out of it, we get all upset.

How about people drop *that* idea, and instead pay for things?

There is only one UI Issue on Messenger

[cloud.pt]

And it's Facebook's obsession with the "don't leave the app" paradigm. Youtube links, html5 video links, gifs and even common pic format links, they're all messed up both on preview and on the follow up link. Youtube is particularly obnoxious, you have to click twice: click once and the video preview disappears, gets replaced by the lone link itself, which on second click actually opens something else (which also inconsistently fluctuates between a chrome tab inside Messenger running html5 Youtube, an external similar Chrome tab, or the Youtube app itself).

But the worst of all, even Facebook's own links are f'd up - I'd love it if I could get an FB link from a post, user, comment or live vid link on Messenger that actually previews, loads and/or opens consistently IN THE FB APP instead of the browser or messenger itself. They just got it real bad on the Android implementation. It just seems to behave differently depending on: 1. the device you're using; 2. the device people are using; 3. the way people copied/shared the item on their side. It's stupid, as in pre-html5, pre-Android stupid. There is only one thing that nags me even more tha this Messenger quirks on Android, and it's the share location function of Google Maps, which deliberately ignores providing standardized location data anywhere it goes, only providing links to a gmaps-centered position, without even a pin or "navigate to" options.

And yes, I have messed around with both Messenger and Facebook apps' "always open externally", "don't use internal browser" or "whatever da fck it's called this week's update so we have a reset justification and you get it back again". It still sux, and always falls back to Chrome who will not redirect it to the app Intent because it was already redirected.

When was the rest of Facebook good UI?

[TodPunk]

I use Facebook, and I'm aware of the consequences of that choice, but I have never been under the impression that it was a good user experience for anything.

- It's not a good blogging engine
- It's not an intuitive navigation for maintaining your friends list
- It's not a good forum and regularly stifles good discussion
- It's not a good marketing engine for actual engagement for your brand (good click-through rate, good demographic targeting, that's about it)
- It's not a good photo album manager
- It's not a good event organizer (though I will say it's WAY more useful than Meetup, for some reason)
- It's also not a good Instant Messenger either, and never was

What exactly are we losing by them doing other not-good UIs for things? It's not like snapchat is any better. Good god their UI is terrible. I get that some have figured out how to use it in spite of this, but this is not because it's intuitive, it is because it is popular. See also: Facebook.

Is that what it is?

[nine-times]

Honestly, I was wondering what happened to Facebook Messenger. I hadn't realized that it was trying to compete with SnapChat, which I've never used and I don't think I ever will. I do know that Messenger was, for me, a somewhat unnecessary but tolerable text-messaging application that I used to keep in touch with some Facebook contacts, and it suddenly became an unusable mess. I deleted it after it launched, post-update, and suddenly started asking me for access to all kinds of things (access to location, address book, and other stuff) and kept asking repeatedly after I said "no". That was the 5-ton straw that broke the camel's back.

It seems like every time Facebook "fixes" or "improves" something, I hate the platform more.

Re:Use Messenger Lite

[AuMatar]

I know /. is gone downhill these days, but I hope its still technical enough not to download a random apk from an unknown website by an anonymous poster.

Re: Use Messenger Lite

[Zorpheus]

There is a lite messenger on Google play though. No need to use this shady link.