Nope.

ShatChat

The opposite of an ode to Facebook ‘Messenger Day’

“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.

Unlike most of the internet, I don’t tend to be one of those people who hates new features when they roll out simply because they’re different. There are exceptions, of course. But for the most part, I try to keep an open mind and often like many new features and fully recognize that even if I do not, any fervor over such changes is likely to subside quickly in the ever-shifting quicksands of internet time.

Which is to say, I gave ‘Messenger Day’ a few days. I still absolutely hate it.

Thirsty.

Look, I get it. Facebook was the lover spurned. And spurned in one of the most high-profile ways possible: who turns down a $3B engagement ring?¹ So now Facebook is out for both payback and to try to nip an existential threat in the bud. That’s clearly how they view Snapchat, the now ~$30B public company.

And so if Facebook has to leverage all 1.8 billion active users in a ground war, they’re going to do it. And as we’re seeing now, the plan is actually even grander than that. Because Facebook controls not only their core social network, but also Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. They’ve decided to weaponize all of these networks, user experience be damned.

You get a ‘Story’! And you get a ‘Story’! And you get a ‘Story!

The ‘Story’ format makes sense in Instagram. From the get-go, it was a visual feed of information. While it was definitely aggressive to put the ‘Stories’ feature front-and-center at the top of every users’ feed, it proved to be a smart move. Not only did it spur usage, if people didn’t want to use the funtionality, they just kept scrolling on down the feed, just as they had always done.

The um, story, is completely different in Messenger. Here, 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.

In his pre-release love letter to ‘Messenger Day’, Josh Constine writes:

Overall, Messenger Day felt less interruptive and more seamless than I expected. Like Instagram Stories, it’s easy to ignore if you don’t care about it. And Messenger works fine even if friends only post to Day rarely, as that could reduce the noise and keep it focused on planning hangouts.

I 100% disagree with this. It’s entirely interruptive and not at all seamless. Like when someone messages me and I click into Messenger and accidentally then click on some person’s ‘Day’. Worse, it’s a person I barely know, but who has messaged me in the past. And now I’m angry.

It’s not just the screen real estate and mis-clicking issue. Every single time I now share a photo — often a screenshot of something I’m talking about with someone, often sort of sensitive in nature!— there’s an overlay that pops up asking if I want to add the picture to my ‘Day’. Every. Fucking. Time. It’s enough to make you want to stop sharing photos on Messenger entirely. Talk about unintended consequences…

Worst of all: you can’t opt-out of any of this — including using and seeing ‘Day’ itself. And so my once-loved utility is ruined.

I could go on — I haven’t even talked about how bad the actual content is in this area, because I didn’t want to follow 99% of these people to see their days — but you get the point. The ‘Story’ format makes sense in something like Instagram. It makes no sense in Messenger or WhatsApp.

We get it, Facebook. You hate and fear Snap. You have billions of users and all the resources to do anything. And so ‘could’ starts to look like ‘should’.²

The filters are pretty good tho.

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Writer turned investor turned investor who writes. General Partner at GV. I blog to think.