The Social Messenger
A newly designed social messaging application, designed to enhance the ability to convey emotions through texts, to communicate better. The Social Messenger seeks to capture the essence of in-person communication, through the highlighting of the nuances of it via animations and the challenging of the conventional mode of conversation.
This thesis project is a culmination of a year's worth of study, analysis and exploration of the different modes of communication (both verbal and non-verbal), and puts to the fore interesting components of everyday conversations not commonly picked upon, in this novel mobile application.
Project is done in Figma, and due diligence was done to ensure that ideas applied to the application was original at the time of creation.
1. Reimagining the chronological sequence
Text messaging apps are sorted by time (chronologically), and all chats are ordered based on when the last message was sent. This system is useful in searching for chats when you remember when you had the conversation. However, if we transpose the real-life situation of looking for someone in a room full of people to have lunch or a conversation with, this segmentation doesn't allow for us to see who would more likely be available.
Our minds look for receptive listeners when we seek to start conversations, and when we listen to understand, our brains open up to comprehension(Hirsch, 2018). This reclassification of the chat screen uses AI that predicts your openness to a type of conversation, and arrays chats based on emotion.
Simply filter via topics of your curation, and find people who the AI deems would be most or least receptive to starting that conversation with you. Filter via conversations, and see who is most active for a chat, or filter via recreation to see who would most be ready to join you for a session of badminton!
Ever needed to code-switch when jumping from one chat to another? Almost sent a text meant for a friend to a work colleague? The reimagining of the chronological sequence of chats allows for a better segmentation of our conversations and who we wish to speak to, in a myriad of ways, defined by you! Filter your chats by the parameters you set, and the AI will array your chats into a spectrum best determined by yourself! See who the AI predicts you would text float near the top if you filter by friends, and watch the arrangement change if you wish to ask someone out for an activity!
2. Vocalised pauses
Emotion and intention can be hard to convey when you are greeted with a wall of text. iMessaging has somewhat improved on this by adding animations to how the same wall of text appears, lending some emphasis. However, allowing for pauses in how we normally vocalise our words to be translated to text messages, would allow subtlety, intention and confidence to be shown in the messages.
Type the message as you normally would, and the AI picks up upon the latency between the words that you type. These suggestions, shown in pockets of time picked up by the AI as pauses can be hand picked so that whatever you are trying to bring across is accurately captured!
Capture intonations of the words you say, inflections in voice to help to convey the correct intentions!
3. Animotions
Within the app, is a choice for you to animate any particular word or phrase, to avoid letting your text messages come across as dead and lifeless, or overly and needlessly enthusiastic.
Choose from 4 animations that are able to encompass a wide range of emotions based on how they are used, and watch the meaning to a simple text change!
The four animations (Grow, Slam, Shrink and Bounce) is a distilled and controlled vocabulary that allows for a broad yet specific range of emotion to be portrayed via a selected emphasis on a part of the message or text
4. Capturing of haste via letter strokes
Written letters and painted scrolls take time, effort and precision. However, messages today are shot off quickly, sometimes without a second glance. The in-built AI detects the haste in which your messages are crafted, and is reflected in the "cleanness" of the lines of your letter strokes.
Messages carry the haste in which it was typed, as if one had used the ink-and-brush method instead of tapping on a glass screen. If, however, haste isn't meant to be shown in your message, clean it up with a simple tap.
5. Conversation signallers
Mimic real life conversations and see how the other party truly feels. Often, text messages do not fully encapsulate the entirety of one's motions and actions, which help in understanding how one feels.
Sensors in-built to most smartphones allow for actions such as having the phone angrily slammed facedown onto the table, or having the phone slowly slide down as it is being held, to be translated and conveyed to the other party.
Once this setting is turned on, there will be a delay on sending these animations, giving you time to decide whether or not that is the emotion you wish to portray.
Remember how it was like to hear the your call abruptly being cut-off because the phone was slammed into the receiver at the other side?
Under the guidance of: R Brian Stone
Date: 29 April 2022
