Download Squad suggests that group messaging is going to be the next big thing in mobile communications:
TheĀ next big thing in mobile communications seems to be group messaging, and that’s no real surprise. If we take a look at the currently entrenched communication platforms, not many of them do more than messaging one-to-one or one-to-a-few well. Sure you can have group chats using traditional IM protocols, but they are inherently transitory.
I have to agree with them somewhat. Ā I don’t know if that’s necessarily going to be the next big thing or if it will be big at all, but it is something that is needed. Today. Ā By many people.
Living in Cyprus, a rather small country with not many ties to technology, I am often much behind the needs of my friends from more populated areas. Ā There is usually a three to five year gap between the time when my American and English friends form a new communication need, and the time when I do so. Ā And more often than not, this gap is enough for a good solution to the problem exist before I even have the actual problem.
With group messaging it is different. Ā At least in the last part. Ā I need it now. Ā Yesterday even. Ā And there is nothing uniform, free, and convenient. Ā Email and Skype are the two tools I use for those purposes the most right now. Ā But neither of them, no together, they solve the problem. Ā They are good enough for when I am (as well as other group members) are online and at their computers. Ā But more and more often we really need a solution that bridges mobiles and desktops.
Features that I personally need are:
- cross-platform client (Linux/Windows/Apple desktop, Android/iPhone/Blackberry mobiles, and also web)
- server-side history with synchronization
- offline messages (if the participant is offline, you should still be able to send the message and he should receive it when he comes online)
- persistent groups (I don’t want to redefine same groups over and over by adding individual members to chat)
- persistent chats (same chat can continue for days or weeks, while there can be more than one chat in progress with the same group, so archiving has to be smart)
- UTF-8 and multilingual support
- attachments and web friendliness (thumbnails for pictures and videos, highlighted URLs and email addresses, etc)
- basic styling (mostly for quotes and code snippets)
- ideally, integration with Google/Facebook/Twitter/Oauth or something else that would save me the trouble of yet another registration, pair of credentials, and all the hard work for contact/group building.