The Future of Instant Messaging

[Jeff]

Has instant messaging become, as Om Malik suggests, "big, fat and bulky?" As the Big Three pile on more and more features, do we really benefit?

What IM features do you use most? What features could you ditch and never miss? We want to know your opinion.

You can select as many features as you want, but please, only select the things that you couldn't live without.

[MrEggsalad]

Ok, I put the basic text, smiles, and API stuff. That's really all I want, with API you can do ANYTHING, so putting in feature on feature is pointless. Let the user pick and choose, don't force it on them.

[Spike]

Text, smilies, and logging. The stuff Google Talk has It should be simple and functional.

[Tigerblade]

text and logging. the rest i could do without quite easily. smilies are ok, but really i've used IM long enough that a :-) looks just like a anyway. and games? if i want to play a game, i can do that on my own without the "help" of an IM program.

basics is all i want or need.

[princeG]

Text, logging and voice for me, though its not always possible to have voice chats with all of my contacts, but I like it and it IS something I want to use often cause it makes the whole communication more "real".
Smilies I can live without them, I can just type "=)" which is my favourite form of smiley.

[magistyk]

The only features necessary for an instant messaging program should be basic text, basic text formating, smilies, and logging.

To be honest, how often during a conversation online do most people utilize all of the text formating features like colored backgrounds, colored text, superscript, etc. etc. Besides the occasional Ctrl + B or Ctrl + I, it is very rare. Otherwise, it is used to really annoy people in an irritating conversation. So get rid of everything except bolding and italics, the rest can be achieved through CAPS and *stars*.

Smilies are a must. In online conversations, many times it is hard to tell the tone of voice or real meaning behind what someones says, compared to when talking in person and seeing someones body language and facial expressions. Through smilies, we can achieve this. However, there are only about four necessary smilies, the happy face , sad face , tongue , and big smile . Besides that, the rest are just about never used.

I love and use logging often, even though it is completely unnecessary. It is helpful and allows me to check what someone said, links that were sent to me, etc.

All in all, simplicity is best. If I want to webcam, I'll open a specific program to do so, or voice over the internet.

[AwesomeSauce]

Basic text and logging, please. None of that girly fluff (games, smilies).

In fact, I'm surprised at how many people NEED smilies. If I want to show emotion, I can do it with the basic text smilies: :) :( and :D. No pictures is good.

[Eagle_Kiwi]

Text: Yes. Voice: Yes.

Logging: No, not vital, but if it's there I sure like it.

Cam/Smilies/Skinning: No, not at all, but I use them if they're there.

Feeds/Games/API: No, I never touch them (in IM). Total waste of space/time.

"Other": Easy access to info about my contacts, either entered by them and/or private comments *I* can enter.

[bluecarnation200]

I must partly agree with eagle. I really love voice. We do it a lot together with our friends. It is so much more personal then text... But I do not usually voice with out him, unless it is another lady. I also like the saved conversations.. Sometimes they come in handy to remember certain parts of a converstion.
Games,? Agree you can go to yahoo games and play which ever you want.
Voice is absolutely necessary when you play games with several people at a time... Like pool.
Smilies,---Well I guess I am just a girl... I like them. The more the merrier.
This is only my opinion... Just thought I would voice it.
Blue