4 practical alternatives to e-mail

BY DYLAN TAYLOR

Rewind 10 years ago: Email was king. Though perhaps unsurprising, it’s hard to imagine a world where all non-face-to-face communication was done through that bulky, long, ugly, and creaky protocol known as email. Most people today, at least in the younger generation, don’t even use the service anymore; they’ve taken to either Twitter DMs, Facebook messages, or just plain texting to facilitate their private communication needs.

Email, however and rather unfortunately, still exists today due to its stronghold in corporate grounds. Its popularity in that territory is, for the most part, because of it’s permanentness; conversations can be referred back to later if a discrepancy arises. It’s far outdated, however, and new solutions are slowly coming to power.

1. Facebook Messages

Facebook’s messaging platform is undoubtedly my favorite feature of the social network giant. Not only does it allow you to privately communicate with other Facebook users, but it has opened its doors to non-Facebook users via email (my FB email is dylanjt@facebook.com, for example, and I can message, from my Facebook account, to any email ID), and allows group messaging amongst all. It keeps things nice and tidy with threaded conversations, live updates and even allows attachments. Basically, it’s a successful version of Google Wave.

Permanent record: yes.Searchable: yes.Email compatible: yes.

2. Twitter DMs

Twitter DMs are my preferred method of private communication. Although they do limit your messages to 140 characters each, I enjoy the elegance, the mobility (via apps), and most everyone I want to talk to is already on Twitter. There are, however, times when I need to be a bit more verbose, so DMs don’t always get the job done.

Permanent record: no.Searchable: no.Email compatible: no.

3. Shortmail

Shortmail is a semi-revolutionary (with the momentum) email service that gives you a new address and restricts your responses from that address to just 500 characters. You can still receive emails from other people with regular addresses, you just can’t send anything over those 500 letters. While its aim is to kill the typical bulky and long email, it ends up being just too constraining as it takes away without giving back. On the bright side, the interface is clean and minimal, and the service has even published a few mobile apps.

Permanent record: yes.Searchable: yes.Email compatible: yes.

4. Yammer

Yammer is perfect for a company of any size that requires team collaboration. It lets you create a private social network for you and your employees. Among its many features is a private messaging protocol. Though it only works employee-to-employee, therefore limiting use to within the company’s network, it’s worth a mention.

Permanent record: yes.Searchable: yes.Email compatible: sort of.

None of these solve your problem?

You may want to check out three.sentenc.es. It’s not a service and it’s not a law; it’s a message, a philosophy, a policy. Keep all your responses under three sentences, add a request in your signature for the recipient to do the same, and, hopefully, your circle of contacts will begin communicating not in verbosity but in short, witty, etiquette.