Speaking through text: the influence of real-time text on discourse and usability in IM.

ABSTRACTReal-time, character-by-character transmission of messages in synchronous forms of text-based communications has seen a recent resurgence in CMC. We evaluated the impact of real-time text display on the usability of an instant messaging (IM) client. Participants were randomly assigned to dyads to participate in two discussion tasks using IM with both real-time text and enhanced message-by-message display (i.e., line-by-line display with additional cues to show when the remote party is typing). We found that real-time text helped users better coordinate turns and lead to less self-editing of messages, but had no overall influence on users' typing ability and provided minimal support for collaborative completion of sentences. Users who typed less or had less experience with IM tended to prefer real-time text. These findings have significance for several forms text-based CMC, including IM, chat, text telephony, and collaborative document editing.