Company
Date Published
Author
Brian Donohue
Word count
1388
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

The first wave of the internet was deeply impersonal, enabling immediacy, scale, and access, but anonymity ruled, making conversations transactional and disposable. However, Intercom's messenger aims to change this by making internet business personal, allowing users to express richness in real life through technology. The new messenger features profiles for real people, sharing simple details like name, photo, and job title to build trust between users and businesses. Face and name perception play a central role in social interaction, and Intercom's messenger puts names and faces front and center to facilitate human connections. Despite the potential for fake profiles, transparency through system text such as active status labels, location, and local time adds authenticity to conversations. These small details may seem unimportant but assembled together, they subtly change the conversation for the better. Users may not initially care about this level of detail in a messaging experience, but once they see it, they start to crave connection, leading to increased trust, forgiveness, and loyalty from customers.