Sharing (and Discussing) the Moment: The Conversations that Occur Around Shared Mobile Media

Today's smartphones enable rich, media-enhanced conversations. Millions of photos and billions of messages are shared each day on smartphones. But how, exactly, are images and web links being used in mobile conversations? And what does this mean for the design of new mobile communications applications? We set out to learn how people currently share and discuss mobile media by performing a detailed content analysis of 109 photos and links that were shared in 2,779 messages using a mobile messaging application deployed in the United State and Taiwan. Through our analysis of these conversations, we show how mobile media is used to experience the moment together, to fill in the visual details, to provide background context, and to exchange information. We then discuss our results and provide two designs inspired by our findings.