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A recent article on emarketer.com, “
What's Up with the US? (Not WhatsApp—Yet),” notes the increased use of mobile messaging applications worldwide. Instant messaging has migrated away from the desktop or web-based application to the mobile appisphere. Some surprising bits of information from this article, for me, were:
- Russia is considered a “developing country” – perhaps in the mobile smartphone/app market.
- The U.S. is near the bottom of developed countries that use mobile messaging apps.
- Google Hangouts is not finding any traction in the U.S. mobile messaging market.
- Facebook Messenger was the leading app downloaded by Android users.
- What’s up with Spain?
While the U.S. is at the bottom of the developed countries for mobile messaging app usage, the report does highlight that worldwide usage has jumped 316% in the past year. With this huge increase there are a lot of products out there and, as the report indicates, there is no clear front-runner in the market yet. Perhaps people are trying out a few different apps to see which one they like best while, at the same time, interest from new consumers is starting to take hold.
In the library environment there are several different text messaging products being used, including Mosio, LibraryH3lp, Springshare, Twillio, and Pidgin. They are computer-to-device products that support SMS. However, the mobile messaging apps now in the marketplace are like SMS+. They offer a wide range of options such as video calls, group chats, multimedia functions, gaming and much more. This could open the door to more flexible tools for online patron services in the years to come. Although there may be a 140 (-/+) character limit for text messages, a librarian could supplement a response to a question by using one of these new apps – perhaps with a quick tutorial or screenshot instead of sending multiple messages to a patron. It will be worth watching to see if any of the current library text messaging products adapts to these new mobile messaging apps or if new products will evolve within this quickly rising market.
