The pros and cons of a messenger app on Steem

I've been thinking quite a few times about the idea of having a messenger app on Steem, similar to the one Facebook has, with which we could communicate easily, privately and without the need of posting anything at all. I also thought why it hasn't been build yet and what would it offer if at some point in time there will be such a thing. I know that there is discord, but it's not the same thing and I honestly don't like it.

Although I am biased towards such an app/option for Steem and especially Steemit I also try to objectively see what that would mean for the platform and of course for the user experience. Thus I put on the table three pros and three cons for such a potential reality and also hope to get some feedback from the ones reading the post also and why not come up with your own pros and cons.

To start in a positive manner I will first point my three pros and numero uno is an instant way of communication which sometimes we feel like having. I know that we are not "actual friends" in here, like in the real life, or at least the majority of us, but it would be nice to have a way to say hi or throw a "what's up" to one of your favorite steemians that you haven't seen active for a while. IMO.

Another important aspect that a messenger app would solve for Steem would be a private way of communication that we for the moment lack. We have of course the comments section in which we can share whatever crosses our minds regarding one's topics discussed but nothing private. It's all public on the blockchain. There is also the 0.001 wallet transfers with a message as a memo but that's also far far from what I am pointing at.

Last pro for a Steem messenger app that I can imagine is making Steem a better alternative for Facebook, twitter and Instagram. From many points of view Steem and its DApps somehow do what the others also do, but it's not as complete as them, if I may put it like that. They have the messenger, DMs, private messages and so on so and in my opinon this would be the only thing that our beloved platform lacks when comparing it with the above mentioned. It has a great plus though which is decentralization and that really makes a difference when putting all side by side.

Now sliding suddenly from the good to the bad the first con that I see for this type of app would be of course...SPAM. From my experience on Steem there is absolutely no app that could escape spam. Probably DTube to some extent, but the most used ones are a paradise for such a parasite. Having a messenger app I can only imagine how many messages a day whales and dolphins would get with "hello sir please upvote my post" so probably that's one reason why we don't have such an app already. The devs could create an invitation based functionality so that spam thing would be somehow solved...

Next on my cons list are phishing comments which could be sent privately through such app and that definitely doesn't bring value to the platform. On Steemit for example there is @arcange that tracks such users and warns authors of the posts to not open the links shared by scammers in their comments, but on a private messenger app that would be impossible in my opinion. Although solutions can always be found if we get to see with optimistic eyes such an app.

Last but not least would be the problem of too much availability. I know that I mentioned above that for some of us having such a way of sending private messages would be nice, but sometimes you simply don't want any buzzing. You don't want them from Facebook, you don't want them from Instagram and you would probably wouldn't want them from Steem, but Steem having also a messaging app there will be another annoying buzz to screw with your silence. Some of us see the platform as a blogging one and not as social media network so all they want to do is post their articles and get out. No friendships, no saying hi, no private communication. Just blogging. Thus having such a messaging app would somehow ruin its status.

As a conclusion I can't say that we really need such an app, but it was nice to even imagine what that would mean for Steem, how it would affect the user experience and how useful would it be. I will repeat myself at the end of the article and invite you again to put your stance also on the topic. Pros or cons, feel free to share them. There's no censorship in here :-)

Source of images: https://pixabay.com/

Thanks for your attention