I Share, You Care: Private Status Sharing and Sender-Controlled Notifications in Mobile Instant Messaging

ABSTRACTWhile mobile instant messaging (MIM) facilitates ubiquitous interpersonal communication, its constant connectivity could build the expectation of an immediate response to messages, and its notifications flood could cause interruptions at inopportune moments. We demonstrate MyButler, an Android app prototype that instantiates two design concepts for MIM---private status sharing and sender-controlled notifications---that aim to lower the pressure for an immediate reply and reduce unnecessary interruptions by untimely notifications. Private status sharing reactively reveals a customized status with a selected partner(s) only when the partner has sent a message. Sender-controlled notifications give senders the control of choosing whether to send a notification for their own messages.