The Message is the Medium: Messaging applications as an emerging interface in the mobile ecosystem
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24137/raeic.5.10.1Keywords:
Messaging Applications, Functional Evolution, Mobile Mediated Interactions, Mobile Ecosystem, Nested PlatformsAbstract
In the early development of the smartphone ecosystem, Mobile Instant Messaging applications were to play a complementary role to that of SMS. The evolution of mobile platforms, however, has pushed them far beyond the limits of individual single-message functionalities. Thanks to their unprecedented adoption, chat apps have contributed to change the fabric of everyday mobile mediated interactions. They also play a crucial role in the expansion strategy of social media related mobile ecosystem players. This paper reviews the current research on chat apps in the mobile communication environment and identifies five relevant research fields: the affordances derived from the growing functional complexity of mobile messaging apps, their impact in mobile mediated social interaction dynamics, the development of non-interpersonal strategic forms of message centred interactions, their increasingly important role in the mobile platform ecosystem and the critical approach to their role in the commoditization of affective labour. The connections amongst these five dimensions underscore the consolidation of dialogical interactions as an emerging interface in the mobile ecosystem both in terms of human-computer interaction and in the terms of the integration between economic dynamics of value creation and social dynamics of identity creation.
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References
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