Two weeks to end of year… my “App of the Year”
It’s that time of year … everyone’s publishing their year-end lists. No list for me. Instead, I’m cutting straight to the chase. Here’s my 2013 App of the Year. And the winner is … What’sApp.
Yup. That plain old (it’s been around since 2011) messaging app that sends messages over IP so you can text anyone in the world at no extra cost on your cell phone plan. OK, maybe it does a bit more than just send text messages, things like:
- No limit on the number of characters per message and the creation of those annoying breaks in conventional text messaging apps that come with your phone
- Easy integration of multi-media content with your text message
- Notification of when your message was seen (a favorite amongst the teenage girls) so there’s no saying “OMG. I never got your message!”
All good stuff, though admittedly not totally unique. There are a few other messaging apps that offer some of these same features. So what makes What’sApp not only better than its competitors but worthy of the coveted MJS App of the Year award?
It’s one little feature called “groups.” On What’sApp you can form a group and invite a number of your contacts to join. Everyone invited can then message the whole group and contribute to a single, private, and shared conversation.
On the surface this feature doesn’t sound revolutionary. But, when put to work in just the right way, it’s magic. Two examples:
1. The CIO’s Direct Reports: A certain CIO I know (he’ll remain nameless to protect the innocent) came into his job after his predecessor was fired. Unsure of what the new “king” would bring, the CIO’s direct reports formed a What’sApp group for delivering up-to-the-minute feedback on interactions and observations of the newcomer.
What started out as a forum to gripe and complain in common purpose against the newcomer soon turned into the glue of laughter and shared experience as they found their new boss to be a really good guy and a very effective leader.
Talk about an exceptional team-building and collaboration platform.
2. The 21st Century Dinner Table: While home from college earlier in the year, my daughter Yael casually dropped the idea that we ought to set up a family What’sApp group so she wouldn’t have to send updates of her RAS competitions to each of us separately.
Without thinking much about it, I said sure, no big deal. A small group, just me, my wife and our two kids. She went back to school the next day and I set up the group. And thanks to What’sApp that dinner conversation that gave birth to the group just keeps right on going, complete with with pictures, short videos and more.
This What’sApp group is the most beloved icon on my smartphone.
It keeps us connected despite the time zone differences of our busy lives. And don’t even think about saying that we could do that with Facebook or Google+. Each of these platforms comes with a tremendous amount of visual and information overhead that takes away from the intimate experience I get from our family-only conversation on What’sApp.
This may be a non-technical, non-professional (albeit heartwarming) example, but it’s life-enhancing. Try it out yourself, you’ll see.
So, to the developers of What’sApp hats off to you guys. Awesome job. It’s our sacred work as IT professionals to create systems and then leave it up to our users to find meaningful uses for them. Man, you guys delivered.
For the rest of us, let’s take this week to think about how we can similarly empower our users next year.
