I’m quite happy with most of the apps on my phone. They are fun and pleasant to use, and they make my life easier and more efficient.
Except for the messaging apps. WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, you name it.
They work fantastically for 1:1 communication with friends, family, and coworkers. I rely on them every day for that.
However, they start to fall apart when used as community tools. On any given day, I have dozens, sometimes hundreds, of unread messages in WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and others, all in the community tabs. As an inbox-zero person, this creates a lot of stress.
I love being part of great communities. The problem is that these messaging apps were designed primarily for 1:1 or 1:n (small group) conversations, not for large scale community interactions.
Since every message is treated with equal importance, and rightly so because you never know which random message might be critical, the volume piles up quickly for large communities.
The irony is that the more engaging a community is, the more messages it produces, and the more overwhelming it becomes to read them – reducing the community engagement.
But because these apps are so ubiquitous, most communities default to them. Nobody wants to download a new app these days. So they don’t really have other choices.
I don’t know what the solution is, but maybe AI has a role to play here? Whoever solves this problem, please take my wallet.