The latest Skype beta added read receipts, similar to the Google Hangouts, Facebook, et al where the person’s display picture moves to where they’ve read so far.
I’m curious what everyone thinks about this feature in general.
In the platforms that already have it, I have found the feature both extremely useful and extremely annoying. In particular on the PC where it can be a little harder to “cheat” by looking at the messages sans receipt using notifications like you can on mobile platforms (although Windows 10’s Action Center can help with that if available/used correctly).
Sort of related, the latest version of Telegram added “mark as unread”, which doesn’t undo the read receipt to your contact, but does let you make a conversation appear as if it still has a message you haven’t read yet.
It’s definitely interesting, albeit unnecessary IMO. If I did try out the beta, which I’m not sure if it would one, work on Windows 7, and two, replace my existing install of Skype 7, I’d now have the power to see if you’ve actually read my messages or not. Would also be useful on MSN with our convos (and maybe some others), considering the wait time involved in receiving messages from you LOL.
Also oooo On MSFT? Wonder if they made that article into a video and uploaded it to their YouTube.
This feature is somehow the mark of our times - when being offline for 5 minutes is pretty annoying for people, as unavaliablity is super inconvinient for friends and family. We start losing our minds while we cannot contact somebody for an hour, we rely on being constantly online. This feature makes this communication revolution even more hardcore - someone reading, but not replying may create emotions. I don’t like it personnaly.
LOL In my case, wait time’s about 30 minutes - 1 hour, however, I’m not exactly bothered by it. Besides, @TReKiE’s a busy man with a busy life. The “now I have the power to see if he read my messages” thing was mostly a jab at the small suspence sending a message and waiting a long time for a reply creates for me. I’d rather stick with the suspence.
Upon more reflection, Hangouts not only does this, but it expands the idea in that it also optionally displays what device the user is on (ie. PC or mobile). I find that to be extremely useful, just like Skype’s (now former) feature of being able to show the user’s local time. In fact, I’d definitely prefer that returned over read receipts.
There’s a Plus script (I think) that uses the PSM to show what conversation window you are presently looking at, so you can see if the person is reading your message (or by looking at the Plus event history).
I personally tend to not open windows until I’m ready for them, mostly because I’m focused on what I’m doing and (fortunately or unfortunately) naturally ignore interruptions. However on occasion I will accidentally open an IM with this feature and I then feel obligated to respond immediately, as I know they now know I’ve read it.
I would love to see a client where the read receipt is delayed a few seconds with an optional “cancel” button (say, esc).