The other party is typing...
When I saw the "The other party is typing..." prompt on the WeChat chat box flashing for a long time, I always had mixed feelings in my heart. One minute, two minutes, the sign was intermittent, but in the end I didn't read a word. Then came a wave of uncontrollable depression and anxiety.
Many people are all too familiar with this sentiment. Compared with what we see in the chat box, those contents that may have been typed but then deleted are more curious and scratching our hearts.
Comic "Jim Is Typing"
After all, words cannot fully reflect a person's true thoughts and mood. Even when communicating face to face, we can't help but guess the other person's true intentions through facial expressions and body movements. When chatting online, some seemingly unrelated instructions began to be given more meaning.
But the initial appearance of this feature was actually just to shorten the chat gap. The origin of
is to allow us to confirm that the other party is still "online".
is different from many technological inventions that like to tout innovative technologies. Functions such as "the other party is typing..." already have wide applicability. Many people will It is taken as a matter of course.
But it does have a background. In the U.S. Patent Library, its number is 6519639, and it also has a professional name called "System Solution for Activity Monitoring and Reporting in Computer Networks."
Of course, you can also call it a more popular term, such as "chat prompter".
The real-time chat software at the time would not tell you whether the other party responded to the message you sent (such as IRC and AIM), or directly displayed the characters typed by the user in real time (such as Unixtalk and ICQ), but we hope that in While not infringing on user privacy, it also takes into account communication efficiency and provides an instruction that allows both parties to get feedback. The owner of the
patent, Microsoft engineer Danny Galsser, recently wrote in his blog post. David Auerbach, another person responsible for user interface design at
, said that the "chat prompter" is to allow people to maintain basic social etiquette like offline communication, rather than interrupting each other's conversations.
When communicating face to face, it is the most basic etiquette not to interrupt others; but across the screen, you can’t guess whether the person you are chatting with is thinking or typing to prepare to speak, so we need a reminder .
Due to the limitations of communication technology, dial-up Internet access in that era often encountered disconnections, and the design prompts could also be used to confirm the online status of both parties to prevent you from talking to yourself in the air.
The poster template that Danny Galsser used to display the "The other party is typing..." function at the time
At the end of July 1999, Danny Galsser completed the network detection and communication functions of the "Chat Prompter", and then integrated it into version 1.0 of MSN Messenger, which It is the first generation instant messaging software developed by and Microsoft .
Don’t underestimate this real-time reminder with only a few words. It is reported that after its launch, about 95% of the traffic in the MSN messaging service was occupied by it, while the actual messages sent by users only accounted for about 5%. The function of
was also recognized by many users, and was quickly used by America Online (AOL) and Yahoo at the time. Interestingly, Microsoft has never sued any company over this patent, but has signed patent cross-patent agreements with many competing products.
Nowadays, whether you are using WeChat, WhatsApp, Apple iMessage or Slack, you can see the words "XXX is typing", or a bubble prompt with an ellipsis. It is like a naturally formed common feature. Rooted in the interactive interfaces of major chat software.
"Chat indicator" shortens the distance online, but also amplifies our emotions
"The other party is typing..." is not the only "chat indicator" that has become popular. You must have also seen it. Read / Unread receipt, message delivered, who has viewed your homepage, whose homepage have you viewed, etc.In essence,
records user traces to enhance interactive feedback in online social interactions.
However, at present, the existence of "chat prompter" has already been given a subtle meaning. For example, if the pause time is too long, or if you receive a message but turn a blind eye, it will lead to various feelings of "being concealed", "being perfunctory", etc. More seriously, it will be interpreted as "friends are gone".
After all, we can no longer use "invisible" or "do not disturb" methods to create reasons for ourselves to be "not online" like we used to do when chatting on QQ. In this era where the phone is never left and everyone uses WeChat as a communication In the era of "always online", "The other party is typing..." is not so much a tool to "confirm online", but rather a proof of the relationship between the other party and you.
Even if the person who sees the message does not want to force social interaction at this time, or plans to reply in a free time, for the person who sent the message, "reply in seconds" is obviously the result they are most looking forward to seeing. Unless you just type in an old-fashioned reason like "I'm a little busy right now".
David Auerbach also admitted frankly that the design of saying "the other party is typing..." still has shortcomings, and it still cannot solve the immediacy problem of online chat.
"It just foretells something that is about to happen, but it leaves us room for speculation and thinking; it will inevitably build up an expectation in your mind, but you will always be disappointed because The answer given by others may not be what you want. "
But some experts also say that providing expected feedback can still be helpful in easing some interpersonal communication. The key is how to interpret the meaning of these indicators. It depends on you and the person you are chatting with. The relationship between.
Naomi S. Baron, a professor of linguistics at the University of Washington in the United States, said that for parents, they would prefer to see flashing prompts when chatting with their children, which means that the children have read their messages and started to respond. Just be patient and wait.
But without these indicators, people may be more confused.
Even if you are not prompted, social anxiety is difficult to eliminate
When talking face to face, people will tend to receive immediate responses, but using chat software, you can take time to organize your thoughts first, and then choose to respond at an appropriate time. other side.
This was originally a convenience brought by social networks, but now it has become a problem that requires us to spend more time dealing with it.
"The New Republic" magazine pointed out in an article that the existence of "the other party is typing..." is speeding up the pace of our chat in disguise. Written and spoken language themselves require a conversion process, and the prompter brings a This is an unnecessary anxiety, and not everyone is willing to write out everything they think.
prompts are two-way. The other party in the chat will also involuntarily set expectations based on the flashing duration of "The other party is typing..." to predict the length of the content you may send. However, many times, this may just be typing a bunch of words and then The reflection of pressing the delete key repeatedly is as if you can see that the other party has thought about a long speech but hesitates, and finally only replies with two words "ok" coldly.
Picture from: uxdesign
Today, the development of instant messaging tools has been mature enough. Relying on smartphones, they unscrupulously occupy most of our trivial time. There are also more choices for chat carriers, such as voice, video calls, and even It's pure emoji.
But the essence of chatting is for dialogue. Most people still like a certain mood reflected by words in this matter. Moreover, it is the simplest and least stressful.
"The other party is typing..." may be the same as the little red dots that are prevalent in mobile apps: it not only provides the functions we need, but also gradually becomes a very confusing mark.
Google Wave was shut down three years after its release.
In fact, in the era when chat tools were just emerging, there was a chat application called "Unixtalk".It is different from today where we need to finish typing a sentence and then press the send button. This software allows the other party to see what you are typing in real time, including the part you have typed and then deleted. After
, Google Wave, a multifunctional communication tool developed by Google, also tried this presentation form. Developers believe that this can better restore the feeling of offline face-to-face communication, and you can start replying immediately before someone else types a whole sentence, making conversation or collaboration more efficient, which is the so-called "immediacy" ".
However, this attempt failed. After experiencing it, many people said that it would make them more cautious and restrained when chatting. More importantly, who is willing to have an absolutely open mind online and let others See all your thoughts?
Author: Musi
Source: https://www.ifanr.com/1245423
This article comes from everyone is a product manager cooperative media @爱faner, author @陈星you
title picture comes from Unsplash, based on CC0 agreement
