On 24th October we discussed how to decide which method of message service to use from WhatsApp, Email, Messenger and SMS. The key elements to think about were
- The length of the message – if it was long then email probably best
- The recipients scope for receiving – don’t send a message they won’t be able to see
- Whether the message was important to keep a record of – email probably best
- Whether the information was private and need to be encrypted – WhatsApp best
Here is the link for an invite to join the JCC Chat Whatsapp group
We had an indepth look at the use of WhatsApp which the majority of members said they used. Two members had installed Telegram which is similar to WhatsApp but not in general use so perhaps not viable to use unless your contacts are known to use it.
Key points in using WhatsApp:-
- contacts for use with WhatsApp are taken from the main list on your device and not currently held in WhatsApp – this is about to change and we await news of how/when
- messages in groups need to be thought about so as not to annoy other members with irrelevant comments and constant ‘thumbs up’ messages.
- use of reactions (found when holding a finger on a message) is often sufficient to acknowledge a comment if absolutely necessary – silence being golden!
- being aware of the groups description to focus messages
- using ‘reply privately’ so as not to send a message to everyone in a group unnecessarily
- we explored creating groups and sending broadcast messages
SMS messages – we all agreed they are not used much except by banks and other businesses to send messages with bank codes or hospital appointments. It was mentioned that the most use of this service was by scammers trying to extort money by for example pretending to be Correos needing a payment to deliver a parcel or letter.
Messenger – not a popular method of communicating as it requires an account with Facebook which not everyone has. Main advantage is it doesn’t need a phone number to be able to send a message. It was noted that if you send a message by this means and you are not connected as ‘friends’ on Facebook then the message goes into ‘Chat Requests’ not the inbox so may not be seen by the recipient.