Karen Church
Rodrigo de Oliveira
ABSTRACT
With the advent of instant mobile messaging applications, traditional SMS is in danger of loosing it's reign as the king of mobile messaging. Applications like WhatsApp allow mobile users to send real-time text messages to individuals or groups of friends at no cost. While there is a vast body of research on traditional text messaging practices, little is understood about how and why people have adopted and appropriated instant mobile messaging applications. The goal of this work is to provide a deeper understanding of the motives and perceptions of a popular mobile messaging application called WhatsApp and to learn more about what this service offers above and beyond traditional SMS. To this end, we present insights from two studies an interview study and a large-scale survey highlighting that while WhatsApp offers benefits such as cost, sense of community and immediacy, SMS is still considered a more reliable, privacy preserving technology for mobile communication.
- Battestini, A., Setlur, V., and Sohn, T. A large scale study of text-messaging use. In Proceedings of MobileHCI '10, ACM (2010), 229--238. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Do, T. M. T., Blom, J., and Gatica-Perez, D. Smartphone usage in the wild: a large-scale analysis of applications and context. In Proceedings of ICMI '11, ACM (2011), 353--360. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Faulkner, X., and Culwin, F. When fingers do the talking: a study of text messaging. Interacting with Computers 17, 2 (2005), 167--185. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Grinter, R., and Eldridge, M. Wan2tlk?: everyday text messaging. In Proceedings of CHI '03, ACM (2003), 441--448. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Grinter, R. E., and Eldridge, M. A. y do tngrs luv 2 txt msg? In Proceedings of ECSCW'01, Kluwer Academic Publishers (2001), 219--238. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Häkkilä, J., and Chatfield, C. 'it's like if you opened someone else's letter': user perceived privacy and social practices with sms communication. In Proceedings of MobileHCI'05, ACM (2005), 219--222. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ito, M. Mobile phones, japanese youth, and the re-placement of social contact. Mobile Communications (2005), 131--148.Google Scholar
- Kasesniemi, E., and Rautiainen, P. Mobile culture of children and teenagers in finland. In Perpetual Contact, Cambridge University Press (2002), 170--192. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kim, H., Kim, G., Park, H., and Rice, R. Configurations of relationships in different media: Ftf, email, instant messenger, mobile phone, and sms. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12, 4 (2007), 1183--1207.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ling, R., and Yttri, B. Hyper-coordination via mobile phones in norway. In Perpetual Contact, J. E. Katz and M. A. Aakhus, Eds., Cambridge University Press (2002), 139--169. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Marques, D., Duarte, L., and Carriço, L. Privacy and secrecy in ubiquitous text messaging. In Proceedings of MobileHCI '12, ACM (2012), 95--100. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Reid, D., and Reid, F. Insights into the social and psychological effects of sms text messaging. February 2004.Google Scholar
- Rettie, R. Texters not talkers: phone aversion among mobile phone users. PsychNology Journal 5, 1 (2007), 33--57.Google Scholar
- Taylor, A. S., and Harper, R. Age-old practices in the 'new world': a study of gift-giving between teenage mobile phone users. In Proceedings of CHI '02, ACM (2002), 439--446. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Thurlow, C., and Poff, M. Text messaging. Handbook of the Pragmatics of CMC. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter 13 (2011), 2010.Google Scholar
- Tossell, C., Kortum, P., Shepard, C., Barg-Walkow, L., Rahmati, A., and Zhong, L. A longitudinal study of emoticon use in text messaging from smartphones. Computers in Human Behavior (2011). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tyler, J. R., and Tang, J. C. When can i expect an email response? a study of rhythms in email usage. In Proceedings of the ECSCW'03, Kluwer Academic Publishers (2003), 239--258. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- What's up with whatsapp?: comparing mobile instant messaging behaviors with traditional SMS
Recommendations
A large scale study of text-messaging use
MobileHCI '10: Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and servicesText messaging has become a popular form of communication with mobile phones worldwide. We present findings from a large scale text messaging study of 70 university students in the United States. We collected almost 60, 000 text messages over a period ...
Middle-aged users' experience of short message service
AUIC '06: Proceedings of the 7th Australasian User interface conference - Volume 50Short Message Service (SMS) is a popular form of nonverbal mobile communication. To date, most research has focused upon the use of SMS by teenagers and young adults. Our work examines the use of SMS by middle-aged users. We conducted a usability study ...
Self-determination of work play asynchronous mobile communication
Text messaging is an asynchronous communication tool for both utilitarian and entertainment activities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the self-determined motivation of text messaging behaviours through Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Data ...
Comments