Skip to main content

Chat Heads

I sort of despise Facebook. I am not sure exactly what it is. Sure the privacy issues irk me. The format of the website has most recently been more annoying than innovative. The mobile application has been barely functional on both iOS and Android. While those things bother me, I am not sure exactly what it is that makes me want to flee it. It is probably a bunch of little things like those listed above.

There are some likes I have within the world of Facebook. All of them are entities that also exist outside of Facebook. That is to say, I like the users that I am connected with on Facebook. In fact that is what keeps me and, as far I can tell from the chatter among the internet, most everyone else there too.

I do have to confess though, that I am liking one of their recent products. Chat Heads is a new feature for Facebook's messaging platform on Android devices (and in a very limited fashion on iOS devices). It came out with a more prominent product that I never see myself using called Facebook Home. But you can get Chat Heads without using the whole launcher by simply having the Messages app installed.

What I like about Chat Heads is the ability to have a text conversation without leaving what I am doing. Although Chris calls this the ADHD function of Facebook, I would like to see other messaging products come up with their own versions of this. It would be handy to see some text messaging apps such as Google Voice as well as even Gmail's mobile app use something similar. With Gmail, perhaps one could set a certain group of contacts that would show up as a chat head, or whatever alternative nomenclature Gmail might use.

So to conclude. I am still not being brought back to Facebook by this feature. I suppose it may increase my usage of the Facebook Messaging platform temporarily. But I would like to see this type of feature become standard across the board for other messaging platforms.

Have you used Chat Heads? If so, do you find it useful or annoying?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Poky Little Puppy

Sometimes Jupiter likes to read the classic Golden Book tale, The Poky Little Puppy before bed or nap time. This is another of many children's stories where the intended moral of the story seems to have been surpassed by a message that, I think, conveys the nearly the opposite message. The Poky Little Puppy is a story about five little puppies who dig a hole under the fence to go out for a walk in the wide, wide world. The fifth, poky, puppy is always behind the others. Eventually the poky little puppy smells the dessert that is prepared for the puppies each night. The four other puppies smell it too and hurry home while the poky puppy takes his time. The four puppies then eat their dinner and are scolded by their mother for digging a hole under the fence with the punishment being that they do not get dessert. Then along comes the poky puppy after everyone is asleep. He is met with no dinner but left over dessert, since the four puppies were not able to eat it. This scenario takes...
6 comments
Read more

Kid on a Leash

Has anyone seen these kid leash products around? Sometimes I see them at the zoo, farmers market, or other crowded areas. If a company can make a product that will make a parent feel a little bit safer, there will always be people out there to buy it. When I see one, it reminds me of that scene in Rise of the Planet of the Apes when a leashed Caesar sees a dog on a leash and turns to Will and signs, "Am I a pet?" The idea of the product is that it will keep the child safe and nearby. It is designed to subside the fear that a child will run off or get abducted. I think that if someone is out to abduct a child during the few seconds when a parent is looking away, a leash is a very small deterrent, and likely, not effective. All the abductor would need is a nice pair of scissors or simply their fingers. The latch cannot be that hard to work. If anything, having a leash might give a parent a false sense of security causing them to pay less attention to the child. In that case it...
3 comments
Read more

Baby Changing Stations

I am out at a restaurant or a store. Baby has a full diaper. I need to go change him. I start walking toward the restroom area. I notice a Koala Care sticker on the door of the women's restroom as I walk by on my way to the men's room. I breathe a slight sigh of relief thinking that I will not have to huddle over the baby on the floor, but only for a moment. I saw no similar sticker as I passed through the door to the men's restroom. No changing station. This is a very common instance when I am out with a diaper aged kid. In most cases, I end up using the floor. In some cases, when I am feeling feisty, I enter the women's restroom to do the job. Older parents will likely say, "Well, back in my day when we had to walk up hill both ways through 500 miles of blowing snow to get anywhere, the floor was all we had!" I understand that. I agree. The floor does the job. I do not take issue with the floor versus modern baby changing technology. In many cases, the restr...
3 comments
Read more