[dangrover]

I'm biased working on the thing, but speaking purely a user, I feel WeChat gives us a peek of the phone OS we'll see in 3 years.

The recent "messaging apps will eat everything" spin is burying the lede. What's happening, broadly, is that in some places (esp. Asia), OS/phone vendors are losing in the early stages of a war between platform (iOS, Android) and meta-platform (things like WeChat, LINE, FB).

Yes, its central function is nominally an SMS replacement, but as a meta-platform it plasters over a bunch of gaps in the OS level. The central UI is a common, semi-hierarchical stream for notifications/news/messages with a consistent set of controls for deprioritizing/blocking things. Then you have services like payment, authentication, and social graph. A lightweight Instapaper/Evernote shared by all my apps. Handling for things like QR codes which western-designed OSes don't do on a system level. Universal search for chat and non-chat content alike. A health/activity data feature for the various Bluetooth gizmos my friends and I use. Then, on top of that, you have tons of light-weight third-party services/apps which, while the experience can shoddier than a native app, for 50% of apps is far more convenient than actually downloading and updating so many 100MB+ apps on my phone and spotting their various red badges in a sea of icons/groups.

In effect, it's a nascent vision of an OS oriented around a thread-based UI paradigm instead of an app-based UI paradigm. Some day, I'm certain some kind of sensible central "inbox" will replace my home/lock screen (as well as the push notification tray).

[Kunlun]

Very interesting angle. I am heavily using WeChat on a daily basis for all purpose: keep in touch with friends, read news, share content (audio, video, articles, pdf, etc.), call people worldwide (very good video stream in China), get alerts from servers, quickly reach distributed teams, pay in restaurants or bars, order train tickets, transfer money to friends, pay online, top up my mobile, etc.

It is by far the app that I use the most on my mobile. For a lot of my contacts, I do not have their phone numbers, email address or full name. I also believe I do not know anybody that do not have a WeChat account (from my landlord, the restaurant down my work to the legal contact of some of our contracts).

I will be leaving Asia soon, I am not sure what will replace this while settling in Europe. My phone could only use WeChat, I will not see big differences, save for emails. What other apps are so central for other markets? I merely use Whatsapp but it is far from having the same extend of functionalities nor such a complete experience.

[mercer]

While anecdotal, I've noticed that WhatsApp use and use cases are steadily increasing in my surroundings.

At first it was just an sms replacement. Then people started using the group chats for (mostly) silly stuff or family groups. Then the group chat function started to be used more functionally for work and, say, flatmate-type stuff coordination and communication.

I wouldn't be surprised that if (or perhaps when) WhatsApp adds more functionality, it will quickly be picked up by everyone around me. I'm mostly surprised what WhatsApp hasn't done this already, especially considering that Facebook already offers a number of functions that I'd love to see integrated (to a limited degree) into whatsapp's paradigm (event creation/planning, more advanced photo sharing, 'blogging').

Does anyone have any idea why WhatsApp isn't becoming more like WeChat?

[dotch]

I listened to a talk by Jan Koum from WhatsApp right before the acquisition by Facebook. His key point was that WhatsApp success comes from the fact that they only do messaging (as an sms replacement) and keep the app simply. He was talking about a lot of functionality that he did not want to add (desktop client, video chat, games, anything commercial or e-commerce related) and said WhatsApp wants to keep the surface are of it's app and developer team as small as possible. I don't know how much that changed after the acquisition, though.

[mercer]

That strikes me as primarily an 'operational' success.

It seems entirely possible to me to integrate a significant amount of features into the 'stream of messages' paradigm without making it complicated enough to turn people away. And clearly the existence of WeChat shows that doing more than just messaging can be hugely successful.

It just happened to be smart for WhatsApp specifically, because of its circumstances and ability and whatnot, to focus on the core product.

[Kunlun]

Again I really appreciate the angle. Working in the technology sector I am wondering what is limiting Whatsapp to expand the features or if the are limiting the features on purpose. I would really like to understand the product design decision.

[rakoo]

Interestingly there are some projects that try to do a similar thing:

- Camlistore is a store where all your stuff is available as JSON or raw bytes, and all "application" just hit into it

- Cozycloud that puts everything in a single CouchDB so all your "applications" access the same shared data that is also JSON or raw bytes

I'd love to see a similar model with mobiles, where all your activity (contacts, payments, messages, pics, anything) is stored inside a common database synchronizable and accessible everywhere. Put focus back on data rather than on applications.

[GFischer]

You're right - on a recent article, Facebook said it was explicitly trying to position their Messenger app as a meta-platform.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-virtual-realit...

"Messenger is trying to eat your smartphone

Zuckerberg's "big regret" also helps explain Facebook's current strategy with Messenger. It spun out its messaging service into a standalone app in April 2015, and David Marcus, formerly of PayPal, is heading up these efforts. He's determined to make it into a platform in its own right.

David Marcus FacebookEric Piermont/Getty ImagesDavid Marcus, Facebook's VP of Messaging Products.

Also speaking at Web Summit, Marcus laid out a roadmap for the future of mobile that puts Messenger front-and-centre.

Marcus wants companies to use message threads, rather than standalone threads, to communicate with their customers. Why download an app you'll only use once or twice when you can have a conversation with the company right there in Messenger, he reasons. "People don't want apps for every single business that you interact with," he said. They "want the ones on your homescreen and that's it."

"When you have the chance to build a great communication within a conversation app ... just have a message within a nicely designed bubble ... [that's a] much nicer experience than an app." It's a "new generation of apps inside of threads."

M, Facebook's new virtual assistant that operates straight out of Messenger, is part of this. It is powered by Facebook's AI tech, and is supplemented with human assistance when necessary. (It's only available to a small group of users right now.) The more it can do for you, the less you need to use other apps.

The result is, of course, that Google and Apple lose out. Their grip on your phone weakens, as you eschew their app store in favour of Messenger threads. If Facebook gets its way, it won't own your mobile operating system — but it will control everything else."

I haven't tried it, but WeChat seems to be ahead of Facebook and WhatsApp at the moment. However, FB does have a strong network effect. Interesting battle to watch.

[asymmetric]

What language(s) is the backend written in? Are there any pieces written using Erlang/functional langueages?