The Future Of Texting
Beam It And Weep
Recently Whatsapp introduced 'blue ticks' that would let you know if your message had been seen, following in Facebook's footsteps. Indeed, to everyone's dismay, on Facebook Messenger you can see if your friend has seen your message and just chosen to ignore it. This means if you're on the receiving end of a very annoying person, they'll see you've seen their message, making things even more awkward when you choose not to reply.Well, Beam Messenger is even worse.
Beam Messenger works like any other instant messaging app, with one major difference. Your friends will be able to see what your type - word for word. It's supposed to mimic 'real life conversations'. So if you're typing something, your friend could reply in the middle of your sentence. Even more intrusive than Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp's blue tick.
Apple with iMessenger have already done a similar sort of thing, where three dots appear when someone is typing, and made people a bit mad. It can be frustrating to see those dots and then not see a message appear or just a simple word. At least Beam Messenger will satisfy those who are impatient and don't want to wait to see what people will reply. However, one downfall of this app is that it leaves you with little opportunities to rewrite or check your text before sending.
Is this the future of texting? Texting that imitates real life conversation? There is just one problem: texting isn't supposed to replicate real life communications. With texting, you're allowed to choose not to reply right away or to ignore texts and never reply. Something that would be significantly more difficult to do when you're talking to someone face to face. Furthermore, with texting, you think a lot more about what you're going to say and type, as texts can be subjective. Sometimes, you don't actually understand the tone of the text so you want to make it as accurate as possible so your exact point comes across. With Beam Messenger, you either have to think very hard before you write or just write whatever and hope it's alright.
Beam Messenger is only available on Android, but they're currently working on an iPhone version.
Laura is a recent graduate from University of East Anglia in Film and Television Studies, currently interning as a content writer but hoping to one day live off her writing. Follow her @LauraAtSMF.
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The Future Of Texting
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Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Rating:
Anonymous
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