SPDCA: An alternative to texting.

I think I've mentioned before my opinions on texting. Long and short: it's an ingenious way for cell phone companies to essentially charge for nothing. From a technical standpoint, the profit margin on texting, given the almost negligible effect texting has on existing infrastructure, is incredible, particularly when it comes to overage fees. Having recently been disappointed in AT&T's announcement for their future move to stop selling "limited texting" plans (instead either pay-per-text or unlimited plans, and nothing in between), I wanted to talk about an alternative.

Instant Messaging (IM) is almost as old as the Internet itself. Starting as bulletin boards, moving through forums, and then services like ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, etc., most of our/my generation has had some experience with a chat window. The services were built with the intent that two people would each be sitting at a computer, with a keyboard, and a relatively persistent connection to the Internet. The systems and protocols themselves work surprisingly well, even supporting things like file transfers, video chat, screen sharing, even sometimes blending telephony into the mix (see: Skype). There even exists a protocol whose purpose is to allow you to create your own IM protocol, making the formalization of old IM protocols (AIM, ICQ) and the creation of new ones (Gtalk) relatively easy.

The problem is that the IM services have become somewhat unpopular, largely due to the onset of texting. The cell phone is the form factor that the original IM designers dreamed of: an always on, always connected device that could fit in your pocket, notify you of new events, and allow you to send and receive messages. And what's more: cell phone companies have convinced the public that it's necessary to pay for such a service, when instant messaging gives you the equivalent functionality, with the potential to exceed that of texting in some ways (status messages, for one).

Recent smart phones have started including IM clients (somewhat better supported on Android, in my short experience, than on the iPhone). I'm glad of this trend, because it gives its users an alternative to the obnoxiously overpriced texting racket. The problem is that for those who choose to communicate over IM, even though they can communicate outside the bounds of "texts," they quickly run aground of the fact that the people on the other side of the IM chat are often at a keyboard, not on a phone. This means that they can easily be spammed by a litany of messages, or be unable to respond quickly enough. Most IM clients, on a computer or otherwise, fail to indicate where a client is connecting from, so a user can't always tell if they're talking to a phone, a computer, or both. This is because most of the IM protocols don't make this distinction, for the reason that as long as you're connected, the service really doesn't care about anything other than successfully delivering a message.

So here's my solution: maintain an IM chat account, say on Gmail/Gchat. Maintain that account separate from your other chat accounts, and only use it for your phone. With that account, only allow messages from other chat accounts that you know are associated with cell phones, and nothing else. Don't log in to this chat account from a client with a keyboard, and if you do, only do so with the knowledge that the person on the other line will respond as they would a text: eventually, not necessarily immediately.

This satisfies the need for passive, non-verbal communication. It also grants the user the ability to set status, such that even if their phone's IM client is connected, they can indicate that they are otherwise engaged (something that isn't possible with texting). Also, depending on how you configure your Gchat client, you can have an off-phone record if your texts, and a record that is searchable (something hard to find in an text clients).

I'd be interested to hear if anybody wants to try this. It requires a smart phone that supports an IM client and push notifications thereof. There is a decent client for Gchat on Android, and I've heard of people using a utility called "Fring" on the iPhone. At the very least, it would be interesting to see if people who text each other frequently (roommates, significant others, etc.), could get rid of the majority of their text usage by going the IM route.