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Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by unwind on Friday December 02, 2022 @03:54PM (#33836754)
Here's an interface idea for a feature I miss in the chat app I use the most (Signal): yelling.

It would be great if the app detected that (for instance) something is said in ALL CAPS (or with an exclamation point, or perhaps some more indirect, non-text-dependent, flag set but that sounds annoying) and _changed the notification sound_.

It would be great to signal that I need to e.g. stop cooking and look at the phone now, because something is happening elsewhere in the house, for instance.

Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by gffrd on Friday December 02, 2022 @05:52PM (#33838080)
If someone needed your attention, wouldn't they just call you? Or walk in to the kitchen?
Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by unwind on Saturday December 03, 2022 @04:07AM (#33841990)
They are typically busy occupying our two kids, so chatting (which is more or less constantly on-going) is way more practical and faster.

Writing "COME NOW!" takes two-three seconds, calling is nowhere near that.

Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by TeMPOraL on Sunday December 04, 2022 @07:43PM (#33859868)
Can confirm. In particular, when lulling a child to sleep, an IM sent from a phone is about the only way of communicating that won't wake the kid up.
Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by MasterScrat on Friday December 02, 2022 @06:47PM (#33838544)
At the beginning of the century, the Microsoft IM platform "MSN Messenger" had an elevated notification system called "wizz" that would literally make the interlocutor's window shake to attract their attention.

Video (in French but pretty clear visually): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMaiUS6jkn0

I agree this could be useful in some cases.

Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by throwaway371057 on Friday December 02, 2022 @07:31PM (#33838892)
It was "nudge" in English (en_GB at least), "wizz" means something different over here :P
Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by MasterScrat on Friday December 02, 2022 @07:43PM (#33838995)
Oh interesting! explains why I could only find videos in French
Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by borbulon on Friday December 02, 2022 @07:08PM (#33838709)
You used to be able to buzz the other person in Yahoo Chat
Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by solarkraft on Friday December 02, 2022 @08:28PM (#33839321)
This also fills the rift between calls and text.

I argue that calls shouldn't have to be synchronously initiated, e.g. I should be able to join a voice channel once I'm available and the other person should be able to join whenever they're available. This saves a lot of pointless back and forth (can you believe some platforms still don't directly connect people that are calling each other, instead falling both attempts?!).

An easy response to that would be "but I want to be able to send the other person a strong message they have to act on so that we can synchronize". This is an important use case, but you see, it doesn't just apply to voice calls! Why shouldn't I be able to demand someone's immediate attention to a text message?

If I was implementing this feature, I'd probably use the phone's voice call API for the notification.

Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by bobthepanda on Friday December 02, 2022 @08:57PM (#33839559)
Some people actually type like this regularly though so I could also see this being annoying
Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by graftak on Saturday December 03, 2022 @03:37AM (#33841841)
Product managers who exclaim everything they write to instil a (cringy) sense of excitement and presence.
Re:Interface Ideas for Chat Apps by unwind on Saturday December 03, 2022 @04:04AM (#33841980)
Yes, the feature should only be active on designated people. I would only enable it for my partner.