Thursday, June 11, 2015

Gizmodo- Twitter and Medium Announce They Have Invented Email

Twitter and Medium Announce They've Invented Email

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Filed to: YOU'RE DOING A GREAT JORB OVER THERE GUYS 6/11/15 7:55pm

Twitter and Medium Announce They've Invented Email

As Twitter and Medium modernize for the new age known as the third quarter of 2015, they’ve both made announcements about the astonishing new directions the companies are taking. Both will be letting users have access to something extraordinary and magically powerful.

Today Twitter announced that the company would at last be relaxing its 140 character rule for DMs. Imagine sending a private message, of any length you choose, using the internet! That’s right. It’s going to completely disrupt the postal service. Writes Sachin Agarwal on the Twitter dev blog:

We’ve done a lot to improve Direct Messages over the past year and have much more exciting work on the horizon. One change coming in July that we want to make you aware of now (and first!) is the removal of the 140 character limit in Direct Messages.

I’m impressed. Sending email through Twitter is major breakthrough. My AOL account is getting jealous.

But it’s not as much of a revolution as what’s happening a few San Francisco office blocks away at Medium, where they’ve introduced a feature they’re elegantly calling “Letters.” Over at Medium’s blog The Story, Katie Zhu explains that the company is “building a new kind of media product” that emphasizes “continuity.” What will it be? Zhu writes:

We’re very excited to announce the launch of a new feature for Publications. We’re calling it Letters. We think it’s valuable, especially in today’s world of endless information streams, to remember the act of letter writing as an intimate form of communication.

So what is a Letter?

It’s a way of connecting with your publication’s followers and starting a conversation.

It’s delivered to the inboxes of all the people who follow your publication.

Wait, wait, wait ... hold on. You mean I can use Medium to send a letter? Digitally? To ALL THE PEOPLE?

So ... it’s email. Sorry, no, it’s bigger than that. It’s a listserv. I love the future.

Contact the author at annalee@gizmodo.com.
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Annalee Newitz’s Discussions

AJ
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AJAnnalee Newitz
6/11/15 7:59pm
LoL! I seriously checked the date in the system tray to make sure this wasn’t an April Fool’s article...hilarious...

12 Reply
Smartazjboy
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SmartazjboyAnnalee Newitz
6/11/15 8:08pm
I’m fine with Twitter’s thing, it didn’t seem too outlandish, but man is the Letters thing kinda deserving of some ribbing haha

2 Reply
CSDNR
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CSDNRAnnalee Newitz
6/11/15 8:26pm
Hilarious and sadly, aptly said. And innovations like email and listservs are why modern tech companies deserve valuations of billions of dollars! Our future has never been more secure, promising or exciting! I hear Uber is raising money at a 50 billion dollar valuation now. I mean, after all - having an app that can disrupt the taxi service is worth the crazy money I guess. We are not curing cancer, or perfecting Molten Salt Reactors or solving environmental crisis after all, not as important as email, food delivery, puppy rentals, or taxi services are.

4 Reply
keefka
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keefkaAnnalee Newitz
6/11/15 8:27pm
Sometimes I fear we’re moving too fast, too bold, into the future.

9 Reply
Interstellar
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InterstellarAnnalee Newitz
6/11/15 8:28pm
Imagine how awesome this will be once a portable device is invented so that we can avail ourselves of this on the move?!?!

2 9 Reply
splodeyhemisphere
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splodeyhemisphereAnnalee Newitz
6/11/15 8:56pm
From the Jargon File - Zawinski’s Law

Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

3 Reply
Norbs
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NorbsAnnalee Newitz
6/11/15 8:00pm
Congrats you’ve turned into the typical internet commenter, capable of finding the negative of everything.

1 3 Reply
- Annalee Newitz
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  Annalee NewitzNorbs
  6/11/15 8:03pm
  
  Are you kidding? This is the greatest thing ever. I see no downside.
  
  1 15 Reply
- Chris Parker
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  Chris ParkerNorbs
  6/11/15 8:06pm
  
  Uh. I don’t think she’s finding the negative in this so much as pointing out that this woo woo handwavy crap from Twitter and Medium is a little, you know, overwrought.
  
  5 Reply
- Volante3192
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  Volante3192Norbs
  6/11/15 8:08pm
  
  Oh yeah, well I’ve got one better! I’ve just invented the round-edged square. It will revolutionize travel and industry in ways unimaginable!
  
  5 Reply
- Annalee Newitz
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  Annalee NewitzVolante3192
  6/11/15 8:13pm
  
  Holy shit. The roundy square was predicted by Nostradamus.
  
  7 Reply
skymeat
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skymeatAnnalee Newitz
6/11/15 8:02pm
Thing is we need to get rid of email. But a proprietary system won’t cut it.

1 Reply
- Annalee Newitz
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  Annalee Newitzskymeat
  6/11/15 8:05pm
  
  Oh now you’ve gotta get all serious on me.
  
  1 2 Reply
- Strizo
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  Strizoskymeat
  6/11/15 8:11pm
  
  Why do we need to get rid of email?
  
  8 Reply
- itburnsso
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  itburnssoStrizo
  6/11/15 8:25pm
  
  Star this comment/question so much. Email is messy, but that’s because communicating with people is messy. I’ve used project management software with commenting, and it’s equally messy. Email is so much better than what was before it, and it’s not inertia that’s keeping something else from taking over.
  
  1 Reply
- skymeat
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  skymeatStrizo
  6/11/15 8:39pm
  
  It is inheritantly untrustworthy. There is no native encryption, so no guarantee what you received is what was sent.
  
  2 1 Reply
- David Mantel
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  David Mantelskymeat
  6/11/15 9:09pm
  
  Are you really sending things of such importance that you think some hacker is going to tamper with it?
  
  2 Reply
- Annalee Newitz
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  Annalee NewitzDavid Mantel
  6/11/15 10:15pm
  
  You know, there are lots of reasons that people might want access to encrypted email, most of them neither weird nor nefarious. Ultimately, having secure email is about basic user safety.
  
  1 Reply
robl66
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robl66Annalee Newitz
6/11/15 8:21pm
E-mail is exactly what Twitter was after. They don’t want people leaving their app to write a lengthy note in a proper email client or Facebook Messenger. It’s an attempt to keep users in the Twitter app. That makes sense to me. The Medium move? Not so much.

3 Reply
- Annalee Newitz
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  Annalee Newitzrobl66
  6/11/15 8:23pm
  
  I hear that. But I guess I feel like the point of Twitter was actually brevity in conversation. And I liked that people had to get to the point quickly in DMs, as much as they do in tweets. You want to send me an email? Well, send me one.
  
  1 3 Reply
- robl66
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  robl66Annalee Newitz
  6/11/15 8:47pm
  
  Sure enough. Twitter got a little less Twittery with that move.
  
  1 Reply

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