Finished writing the blog post about read receipts today.
"Read Receipts Considered Harmful"
https://asininetech.com/2018/03/19/read-receipts-considered-harmful/
@staticsafe see this opinion is interesting because im the reverse; ive found *not* having read receipts causes anxiety quicker than having them
@staticsafe Nice post! (One minor typo if you want to bother with it: "distracted by something else before they could response" should say "respond".) I was nodding along until "Say no to the double checkmark," which I think is interesting. Is that the UI folks are using for read receipts? Signal shows a double checkmark, but it only indicates that the message reached the recipient's device, which I find very useful--then I know they can't possibly have seen it because their device is offline.
@jamey fixed the typo, thanks!
As for the UI question, it appears I was operating from a slight misconception, in Whatsapp a double checkmark indicates that the message was sent and delivered, a *blue* double checkmark indicates that the message was read.
iMessage eschews icon indicators entirely and uses the text "Delivered" and "Read". The latter never appearing if the recipient does not have read receipts turned on.
@staticsafe I'm always fascinated by these kinds of subtle UX things, and I use very few chat apps, so this was all very interesting to me. Thanks for writing it up!
@staticsafe whether i like read receipts depends a lot on who i'm talking to and about what tbh
girlfriends: ✅
parents: ❌
@staticsafe Great points. I feel similarly about "so-and-so is typing…"
@nolan The typing indicators drive me absolutely batshit. As far as read receipts, I like Signal's "it made it to at least one device, so they *could* have read it" indicator.
@staticsafe
eldritch child
@staticsafe *posts double-checkmarks all over your blog, doesn't respond*
(I'm sorry)
@staticsafe I think, although I'm not entirely sure because the documentation is ambiguous, that Wire *does* have read receipts. My understanding is that the “Delivered” status on a message means that its been sent to device where the Wire app is active (ie: device is unlocked, Wire is the foreground app).
@RAOF hmm that seems a bit convoluted, can you link me to the documentation on this?
I thought that the "Delivered" status meant that it was delivered to at least one active device on the Wire account.
@staticsafe A combination of reading the tea leaves on https://support.wire.com/hc/en-us/articles/212229269-How-can-I-tell-if-a-message-I-ve-sent-has-been-delivered- and my not-very-scientific testing.
@staticsafe I'm not sure about the conclusion (still thinking this through), but one suggestion: the title now implies that you have canvassed a large amount of opinions and are summarising them. Perhaps "why I consider read receipts harmful" would have been more accurate?
On the other hand, the current title clearly stands in line with previous "considered harmful" pieces about Internet functionality:
@staticsafe IMO the problem is that people expect you to reply immediately. Read receipts reinforce that expectation, but it can happen nevertheless.
OTOH, some chat cultures (notably IRC) developed the approach of send-and-go-on-with-your-life, as the person may reply after 30 minutes or 2h or sth.
Another thing that would be IMO useful is presence statuses. Back in early IM days, you had:
wanna-talk, online, brb, bbl, busy, invisible, disconnected
it helped set expectations for response time
@staticsafe I think read receipts exist not because they solve any real problem for the user but because the companies trying to move us from SMS to their walled garden needed SOME feature to distinguish themselves from SMS. They also keep us staring at our devices instead of having lives.