Will instant message apps ever replace email?
Hey guys,
New Indie Hacker here :)
Would love to hear your feedback about the future of email. I believe email hasn't changed much since it's creation decades ago and it's becoming a super outdated and unproductive tool. Based on that, me and co-founder have built Drag (https://dragapp.com), that turns Gmail into Trello-like boards to help individuals and companies to be more productive in email.
Along the journey, we have heard people saying that email is dying and we should be focusing on building instant message apps, that are replacing email and introducing a new way to communicate (like WhatsApp, Slack, Snapchat, etc).
Do you agree with that? I personally don't see anyone making a first contact or a cold outreach by instant message, but maybe I'm not visionary enough... What is your view?
Thanks,
Duda
You start off mentioning making email more productive with your app. I think there is a lot of room for that. See Front App for a recent example.
In my opinion, your second point is an important but separate question. I would absolutely say messaging is a channel for prospecting.
People use LinkedIn and Facebook to prospect all the time. Start with the connection request and then switch to the messaging product. Instagram is huge too for more B2C.
I’m texting with a former CTO of a public company whose a prospect for my services. He initiated the texting.
I’ve heard of people building businesses today without even a website. Just a LinkedIn profile and social selling.
Hey Harry, thanks for sharing. That's interesting that companies are really using more messaging for prospecting and the channels you mentioned have become become big ones (even leading to the creation of businesses like for opportunities like (https://manychat.com/).
But still think my first and second questions are related because even when you meet a prospect or potential supplier via messaging, at some point the conversation tends to migrate to email, at least today. For example, depending on how your conversation with the CTO goes, you will probably exchange some emails with him/her. We can also see from your last statement in your signature "📧Email me if you think I can help you with anything." :)
The thing is, do you think this "second stage" of a conversation after a cold outreach, could also be replaced by messaging?
Super cool product!!
Personally, I don't see email going away anytime soon. Sure, maybe it won't be how I communicate with my co workers, but I am not going to have my receipts sent to me in Slack, that's just not practical.
Thanks Nicholas! That makes sense, I see the point of migrating internal communication to instant messages, reducing the amount of emails exchanged daily, but there should be still a massive demand for 'cold' communication. Thanks for the feedback :)
I think you're right. If businesses are still doing cold mailings through snail mail we are a long time off from loosing cold emails.