I spent a lot of my day on Facebook Messenger. Maybe I don't spend a lot of time staring at the screen, but every once in a while I'll be messaging someone. Typically, hardly an hour or two passes in between messages I send.
When we message someone in a personal (as opposed to work) context, our messages typically contain clues as to what we're doing or plan to do, for example:
- "sorry I'm on a call rn"
- "at work! I'll get back to you later"
- "sorry I'm planning to see my parents this weekend"
For people like me who message friends every day, our messages from a single day can function somewhat like a diary -- reading it later can remind us of what happened that day.
The problem is that our chat apps don't organize our messages that way!
A function in a chat app, or an external tool, that allows the user to view all messages, from all chats, chronologically. The user can jump to certain days and can filter out certain chats if need be. The resulting log might look something like:
-- 10:34 am --
>A: hey you awake? still down for hiking?
<A: yeah
>A: ok let's meet at the trail at 11:30?
<A: let's do it
-- 11:35 pm --
<B: lunch?
>B: sorry I'm hiking rn!! maybe dinner?
<B: hmm will let you know
-- 11:35 pm --
>C: [picture] thanks for recommending this trail
-- 5:14 pm --
<B: yeah I think I'm down for dinner actually
>B: hmm I'm still hiking with A
<B: ok lmk
-- 5:58 pm --
<C: ikr it's amazing
-- 6:11 pm --
>B: Just finished! we're probably gonna get dinner if you want to join
>C: what a view!
<B: oh yeah that sounds good actually
>B: want to eat at ______ at 7?
<B: yes!