The Walled Garden Dilemma: Privacy vs App Choice in Messaging
summary
Users craft personal communication places across a median of five messaging apps and use one primary app 78% of the time, so walls both protect social boundaries and cause expression breakdowns when features mismatch. A survey of ~500 WhatsApp users finds 26% want to switch, only 6% actually switch much, and 0.5% uninstall. A prototype DeBoard keyboard brings shared color themes and emoji/GIF shortcuts into any app as a trojan horse to preserve places while reducing breakdowns, but protocol-only interoperability likely won’t overcome habit and functionality gaps.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction to talk
- 1:14Research focus on messaging
- 3:24Why people use multiple apps
- 7:00Walled gardens as privacy tools
- 9:53The walled garden dilemma
- 12:51Network effects and monopolies
- 18:52Barriers to switching apps
- 21:04Designing for interoperability
- 24:56Designing communication apps
- 25:57Conclusion and Q&A
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