Everybody's jumping on the instant messaging bandwagon. It's kind of like the chat app explosion from several years back, when you had to have AOL Instant Messenger or ICQ, or you were out of touch.
Messaging is little more than mobile chat using telephone protocols, so the fact this form of communication has come back around again proves the popularity of the idea. Perhaps it was just waiting for the right medium.
In the face of the wildly popular Snapchat, Facebook's new Slingshot, and Google Hangouts, the little-social-network-that-could Path has tossed its hat in the messaging ring. Path Talk is the company's newest app, and it's exactly what it sounds like: a messenger app from Path. Messaging has been a feature of Path for over a year now, becoming the service's most dominant feature, but an update has spun it off into a dedicated app.
Like most of its contemporaries, Path Talk does not save a log of your conversations. Yet Path Talk does a great deal more than your standard messaging app. The Path team has gone out of its way to make text messaging more like an in-person conversation by adding features that address the parts of communication that texting can't do.
The first feature is called "Ambient Status," and it provides context for your messages. Ever been chatting with a friend and they suddenly stop replying? Later you might find out they were driving at the time, their battery had dropped dangerously low, they were listening to music, or they got hit by a powerful storm. Ambient Status automatically lets your chat partners know when these kinds of circumstances arise that could affect your ability to keep the conversation going. It's a clever way of preventing misunderstandings. For the privacy conscious, it's entirely opt-in.
Another smart feature is called "Quick Replies." This one is a substitute for the nonverbal tics of communication, like acknowledging a message or giving a friendly "I'm still here" nudge, without the use of a keyboard. A speech bubble-shaped button is always available to the right of your text box; tapping on it brings up a short list of Quick Reply options.
It's no coincidence Path is launching its messaging app the same day it has announced the acquisition of a startup called TalkTo. The idea behind TalkTo is to give you location-based texting capabilities -- with a twist. Send a message through TalkTo to any place nearby, and you'll get a text response from them within minutes. The local businesses or doctors offices or what have you aren't required to participate in TalkTo for this to work; it's all handled on the back end by the team at TalkTo. They scour the Internet or place phone calls to find the answers you need, make your reservations, check product availability, and more.
Path announced one other major change: it's lifted the friend cap. Until now, Path users could have no more than 150 friends. The number is now unlimited, and that carries over to Path Talk as well.
Path expects to have TalkTo integrated into Path Talk before the end of summer 2014.
