Engagement, under all forms, is at the heart of social media.
Views is the least interactive form of engagement. You see someone's content, but take no action. You don't push the like or dislike button, you don't comment, you don't share. BUT, it has the benefit of reaching to people not on the same platform as the author, which in many cases it's not possible for other forms of interactions.
Likes (and dislikes) are a form of engagement, but without anyone telling you and other visitors why they liked your post, or giving you feedback. In the case of Steem, they also influence your post rewards.
Sharing is a like on steroids. You like it so much you want your audience to see it too. Or you find very important to spread a certain call-to-action/news/idea. Or you want your followers to discover someone. Pretty powerful stuff, especially if you don't abuse it.
The next level of interaction is through comments. If they are not replied on, then engagement looks like a one-way street.
Here notifications on new comments play a big role. If you are being notified of a new comment as it happens (a few seconds later), you have a chance to reply in time to maybe begin a conversation. Sometimes it happens, other times a reply will be enough and neither of you feel like going on.
Comments are also... public, as is the post.
On Steem, you can also communicate via the memo field. And that can be encrypted between the two sides, if some privacy is required. But it's not a convenient way to carry out a conversation. Only to relay a certain information. And it is still on-chain.
The best suitable way to carry out a long (or private) conversation is via a messaging app. There are plenty of them off-chain. Discord, Telegram, Whatsup etc. There were and are some tentatives to bring them on-chain as well.
I'd like to analyze the pros and cons of a messaging app on-chain, from my opinion. Please feel free to add your own impressions both ways in the comments section.
Pros
- It is a great solution if someone needs immutable, forever public logs (transcripts) of certain conversations. Steem Foundation meetings? Binding understandings within the Steem community, outside the Steem DAO system (you get this if you provide that by the agreed deadline)?
Anything else?
Cons
- spamming the blockchain - a conversation over a messaging app can get really long without saying anything really, just light talk; keeping such a conversation on-chain seems pointless in most cases, plus it clutters the blockchain. Additionally the way we talk live is different, we keep the "sentences" short and break lines often. Each of them will likely be kept separately on the blockchain, increasing the necessary space needed to store it, and each requiring its own operation. Imagine storing a conversation from the MSP server, when things get heated and everyone talks.
- private conversations are meant to be p2p - from what I know, no serious messaging app keeps the private conversations on their servers, not even encrypted. The conversations are encrypted p2p and when both peers delete them they are history, gone forever. Keeping them on-chain would be even worse from this point of view.
It is my belief that having a messaging app at the Steem blockchain level is not a first level priority or will be beneficial, except for the niche purpose I listed above.
So, should we keep using third party apps?
Not really... I'm not saying that. What I said is that it's not a first level priority. But in time, we will have messaging apps inside various dapps on Steem. The faster and bigger they grow, the more likelier it is to have it sooner.
We currently have one in Splinterlands for Guilds. There is one for Drugwars too, but I haven't seen people using it.
One important mention. None of them are on-chain, and that is a good thing in my opinion.