Traditional means of communicating on mobile devices and computers have often followed very distinctive paths historically. Until recently, the mobile phone was based around text messages and voice chats; however, on the computer it’s been video chats and instant messaging for quite some time now. Now that we have personal computers as our telephones, why hasn’t anyone come along and merged all of these communication methods into an easy to use application, one mobile communications app to rule them all?
I’ve been saying for over a year now that Messages and FaceTime needed to be integrated, then technologies like iMessage/SMS need to find their way into iChat as well. We don’t need one application for each communication medium. What we need is one communication medium that wraps all of the other mediums into one all powerful communicating application. We’re almost there, with iMessages heading to OS X, and FaceTime getting integrated into the Contacts app in iOS. It’s time we merge these beasts entirely, once and for all.
John Herman over at Buzzfeed has put together an interesting concept that places text messages, FaceTime and file transfers directly into one application. Alongside the FaceTime video is a button for the telephone, access to contacts, and a history of previous SMS/iMessages messages sent between contacts. It certainly makes sense.
Imagine an app — probably your contacts app, which you rarely touch now — that treats all communication like messaging. Your recent call list includes your most recent texts, video calls, file transfers and phone sessions. Each contact’s entry has an individualized version of this same thing. To text or call or chat with someone is to reenter and resume a continuous line of communications, logged and consolidated and easy to manipulate. Switching from a voice call to a file transfer to a text message to a video chat would be seamless.
Shut up and take my money already. I’d pay for that app.
If Apple’s serious about bringing iOS back to the Mac, and a little more OS X to iOS, they’d be smart to reevaluate how we communicate in 2012 and then rebuild the tools we have to make those kinds of connections with friends and family a whole lot better. One app to rule them all, one app to find them.
