Have you ever had that awkward moment where one of your friends asked you, “Hey – why didn’t you respond to my text/email/message?” Until now in Facebook, it was pretty easy to say, “Sorry, I was busy and didn’t have a chance to read it.”
All of that appears to be changing as Facebook is working on tweaking its mobile messaging system and will now allow Facebook friends to see when their sent message is read. Although read receipts aren’t anything new (Outlook and Blackberry have been using these for ages), this could create a few uncomfortable situations amongst Facebook friends.
Facebook appears to be trying to make its messaging system more conversational, but the move seems a bit risky. It has been my experience that almost all Facebook users are VERY concerned with their privacy and this move appears to be lessening the amount of privacy control between friends.
Knowing when your Facebook friend reads a message is informative for the person who sent the message, but what happens if the friend can’t respond immediately? Usually, I don’t respond to Facebook messages immediately (especially from my mobile device), often because they are long and a response requires some thoughtfulness.
Only time and user experience will tell whether this new Facebook “seen” feature is liked or not. Please let us know what you think about it in the comments section below.
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1 Response to.. “Facebook Messaging Implementing Read Receipt” |
Wow…I tend to agree with you on this Chris. I think one of the great things about Facebook is not only the privacy controls, but also that people don’t necessarily “need” to respond as timely as we may with an email or text…we can sort of take our time and respond when we have time to put some thought into it. Seems like Facebook has been making some sketchy moves lately…hopefully it’ll all work itself out as people voice their opinions (good and bad)!