Short-term pain to download a new app, but much lower friction to access chat functionality and having all conversations in one place.
Facebook forces 1 billion users to messenger app
In 2014 Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking site, forced almost 1 billion users to download and use their separate Messenger app, after removing all chat features from their main app.
Why? Although this created initial friction for a large user base who needed to download and install a separate app, it was done to create a better user experience and remove the ongoing friction of using chat on mobile. At the time, CEO Zuckerberg explained:
”Messaging is becoming increasingly important. On mobile, each app can only focus on doing one thing well…Ten billion messages are sent per day, but in order to get to it you had to wait for the app to load and go to a separate tab… We saw that the top messaging apps people were using were their own app. These apps that are fast and just focused on messaging. You're probably messaging people 15 times per day. Having to go into an app and take a bunch of steps to get to messaging is a lot of friction.”
Each app is designed to do one thing well
Chat needs to be supported via its own dedicated app to reduce user friction and create the best possible user experience. In-app chat is secondary to the main features resulting in extra loading time, access via separate tabs, and will limit adoption.
Chat is a utility
Users are accustomed to using a small number of chat apps for different purposes (mail, phone). Users don't want a separate chat app per company and that is why we have created Qwil as a platform and not a white-labeled bespoke app per organisation.
Needs to support both clients and staff
In the case of Qwil, app complexity is further increased by the need to support both clients and staff with different in-app features. Most organisations have a sophisticated, often bespoke, primary client app but have no equivalent staff solution.
Needs to supports multiple parties
Qwil also supports multi-brands within a company, jurisdictions, and external partners (accountants, lawyers) on the same app which would not be possible without the multi-tenancy approach.
Needs to ensure end to end security
Social chat platforms such as WhatsApp are not secure, they are just encrypted. For security you need to:
- Only have verified participants (a closed system).
- Control the end points (i.e the data on each side with security on each device).
- Encryption.
This is why Qwil is built as a separate app so that companies and clients can be sure the data is fully controlled and owned by them.
It is when you go into details that you realise you need a professional platform with two user types and specific rules. What happens when a staff leaves the firm? Can staff download a document on their personal phone? Can all staff see all clients?