Mastering Message Organization: How Filters Improve Chat Management and Accessibility

https://www.winklix.com/blog/how-to-outsource-mobile-app-development-a-step-by-step-guide/

Introduction to Message Organization and Chat Management

As an experienced writer, I understand the importance of clear and organized communication, especially in the digital age where we rely heavily on chat platforms for both personal and professional interactions. Effective message organization is the key to streamlining conversations, improving accessibility, and enhancing overall productivity.

In this article, we will delve into the world of message filters and explore how they can transform your chat management experience. We’ll discuss the significance of message filters, the different types available, and practical steps to set them up in popular chat platforms. Additionally, we’ll cover tips for organizing and managing messages effectively, share real-life case studies, and explore the best practices for using filters to enhance accessibility.

The Importance of Message Filters in Improving Chat Accessibility

Message filters play a crucial role in improving the accessibility of chat platforms, particularly for individuals with disabilities or those who prefer a more structured communication environment. By enabling users to customize their message display, filters can help address a variety of accessibility needs, such as:

Visual Impairments: Filters can assist users with visual impairments by allowing them to adjust font size, color, and contrast, making the chat interface more comfortable and legible.
Cognitive Disabilities: Filters can help individuals with cognitive disabilities by organizing messages into logical categories, reducing visual clutter, and providing clear cues for important information.
Hearing Impairments: For users with hearing impairments, filters can be used to highlight or display critical audio-based notifications, ensuring they don’t miss important updates.
Language Barriers: Filters can facilitate communication for users who speak different languages by providing translation options or allowing them to group messages by language.

By addressing these accessibility considerations, message filters empower users to tailor their chat experience, fostering inclusive and equitable communication.

Understanding Different Types of Message Filters

Message filters come in a variety of forms, each designed to address specific needs and preferences. Let’s explore some of the most common types of message filters:

Sender Filters: These filters allow users to group, prioritize, or hide messages based on the sender’s identity or role within a chat.
Time-Based Filters: With these filters, users can organize messages by date, time, or time range, making it easier to find and reference past conversations.
Content Filters: Content filters enable users to sort messages based on keywords, topics, or message content, helping them quickly locate relevant information.
Notification Filters: Notification filters allow users to customize which types of messages trigger alerts or notifications, ensuring they stay informed without being overwhelmed.
Attachment Filters: These filters help users identify and manage messages containing specific types of attachments, such as images, documents, or links.
Unread/Read Filters: Unread/read filters make it simple to differentiate between new and previously viewed messages, aiding in message tracking and organization.

Understanding the diverse range of message filters available can empower you to tailor your chat experience and optimize your message organization workflow.

How to Set Up Message Filters in Popular Chat Platforms

Integrating message filters into your chat management process can be a game-changer. Let’s explore how to set up these powerful tools in some of the most popular chat platforms:

Slack: Slack offers a robust set of filtering options, including the ability to filter by sender, channel, message content, and more. You can access these filters by clicking on the filter icon in the top-right corner of the Slack interface.
Microsoft Teams: In Microsoft Teams, you can utilize the search and filter functions to organize your messages. Simply click on the filter icon in the top-right corner to access options like filtering by sender, date, and message content.
Discord: Discord provides users with the ability to filter messages by various criteria, including user mentions, file attachments, and message content. You can access these filters by clicking on the filter icon in the top-right corner of the Discord interface.
WhatsApp: While WhatsApp doesn’t offer as robust a filtering system as some other platforms, you can still utilize the search function to find specific messages or conversations.
Gmail: For those who use Gmail as their primary communication channel, the platform’s built-in filtering system allows you to organize your messages based on sender, subject, and other criteria.

By familiarizing yourself with the filtering capabilities of the chat platforms you use, you can unlock the full potential of message organization and streamline your communication workflows.

Tips for Organizing and Managing Messages Effectively

Effective message organization goes beyond simply setting up filters. Here are some additional tips to help you manage your messages more efficiently:

Develop a Consistent Naming Convention: Establish a clear and consistent naming convention for your chat channels, groups, or threads to make it easier to locate and reference specific conversations.
Utilize Keyboard Shortcuts: Most chat platforms offer keyboard shortcuts to help you navigate and manage messages more quickly. Learn how to use these short cuts to increase your output.
Implement a Message Archiving System: Regularly archive or delete old messages that are no longer relevant, freeing up space and reducing visual clutter in your chat interface.
Leverage Pinned Messages: Use the pinning feature to keep important messages, instructions, or reference materials easily accessible at the top of your chat channels.
Encourage Concise Communication: Encourage your team or chat participants to keep messages clear, concise, and on-topic, making it easier to process and organize the information.
Establish Message Prioritization Protocols: Develop guidelines for how to prioritize and respond to different types of messages, ensuring critical information is addressed promptly.

By implementing these tips, you can create a more structured and efficient message management system, ultimately enhancing your overall productivity and communication effectiveness.

Also Read : How to Outsource Mobile App Development: A Step-by-Step Guide

Case Studies: Real-Life Examples of How Filters Improve Chat Management

To illustrate the real-world impact of message filters, let’s examine a few case studies:

Accessibility for a Remote Team: In a distributed team working across multiple time zones, a company implemented robust message filtering capabilities to improve accessibility for members with various needs. Employees with visual impairments were able to customize font sizes and colors, while those with hearing impairments could easily identify important audio-based notifications. The filters also helped team members who spoke different languages to organize and translate messages, fostering inclusive communication.
Streamlining Customer Support: A customer support team at a SaaS company leveraged message filters to enhance their efficiency and responsiveness. By setting up filters to categorize inquiries by product, urgency, and customer profile, the team could quickly identify and prioritize critical issues, leading to faster resolution times and improved customer satisfaction.
Enhancing Project Management: A project management team utilized message filters to stay organized and on top of their tasks. They set up filters to group messages by project, task, and team member, making it easier to track progress, assign responsibilities, and collaborate effectively. This improved their overall project visibility and decision-making capabilities.

These case studies demonstrate how message filters can transform the way we manage and organize our digital conversations, leading to increased productivity, improved accessibility, and enhanced collaboration.

Best Practices for Using Filters to Streamline Message Organization

To ensure you get the most out of your message filters, consider the following best practices:

Conduct a Needs Assessment: Start by evaluating your specific communication needs and pain points. This will help you identify the most useful filter types and configurations for your workflow.
Experiment and Iterate: Don’t be afraid to try different filter setups and adjust them over time. Regularly review the effectiveness of your filters and make modifications as needed.
Encourage Team Collaboration: If working in a group, collaborate with your team members to establish consistent filter configurations and naming conventions. This will promote a cohesive and efficient message organization system.
Leverage Automation: Explore opportunities to automate your filtering processes, such as setting up rules to automatically categorize messages or trigger specific actions based on predefined criteria.
Monitor and Analyze: Regularly review your message activity and filter usage to identify patterns, trends, and areas for improvement. This data-driven approach can help you refine your message organization strategies.
Prioritize Accessibility: When configuring your filters, always keep accessibility in mind. Ensure that your settings cater to the diverse needs of your chat participants, promoting inclusive and equitable communication.

By following these best practices, you can unlock the full potential of message filters and transform your chat management experience.

Accessibility Considerations for Message Filters

As we’ve discussed, message filters play a crucial role in improving the accessibility of chat platforms. However, it’s essential to consider the specific accessibility needs of your chat participants when implementing these tools. Here are some key accessibility factors to keep in mind:

Visual Impairments: Ensure that your filter settings allow users to adjust font size, color, and contrast to accommodate their visual needs. Provide clear visual cues and labels to help users navigate the filtering options.
Cognitive Disabilities: Organize your filters in a logical and intuitive manner, with clear categorization and labeling. Avoid overwhelming users with too many options or complex configurations.
Hearing Impairments: For users with hearing impairments, consider implementing filters that highlight or display critical audio-based notifications, such as mentions or important updates.
Language Barriers: Incorporate translation capabilities or the ability to group messages by language to facilitate communication for participants with diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Motor Impairments: Optimize your filter controls and settings to be accessible for users with motor impairments, such as providing keyboard shortcuts or easy-to-navigate interfaces.

By prioritizing accessibility in your message filter design and implementation, you can ensure that your chat platform is inclusive and empowers all users to participate fully in the conversation.

Tools and Resources for Optimizing Chat Management with Filters

To further enhance your message organization and chat management skills, consider exploring the following tools and resources:

Chat Platform Integrations: Many popular chat platforms offer integrations with third-party tools that can extend the functionality of their built-in filtering capabilities. Explore options like Zapier, IFTTT, or platform-specific integrations to automate your message organization workflows.
Productivity Apps: Utilize productivity apps like Trello, Asana, or Notion to complement your chat management efforts. These tools can help you organize tasks, track projects, and maintain a centralized hub for your communication activities.
Online Tutorials and Guides: Refer to your chat platform’s developers’ online tutorials, user manuals, and guides to stay up-to-date on the latest filtering features and best practices.
Accessibility Evaluation Tools: Leverage accessibility evaluation tools like WAVE, Lighthouse, or WebAIM to assess the accessibility of your chat platform’s filtering interface and identify areas for improvement.
Community Forums and Support: Engage with online communities, user forums, and support channels to learn from the experiences of other chat users and exchange best practices for message organization and accessibility.

By leveraging these tools and resources, you can continuously refine and optimize your chat management strategies, ensuring your message organization workflows are efficient, accessible, and tailored to your specific needs.

Conclusion: The Future of Message Organization and the Role of Filters

As we look to the future, it’s clear that message organization and the role of filters will continue to play a crucial part in our digital communication landscape. With the increasing reliance on chat platforms for both personal and professional interactions, the need for effective message management will only grow more critical.

To stay ahead of the curve and master the art of message organization, I encourage you to explore the powerful capabilities of message filters and incorporate them into your daily communication workflows. Doing so will unlock new levels of productivity, accessibility, and collaboration, ultimately enhancing your overall communication experience.

September 22, 2022September 22, 2022

Decoding The Incredible Scalability Of Disney+Hotstar App: System Structure, Concurrency & More

On August 28th, 2022, when India was playing against Pakistan at Asia Cup T20 Championship in Dubai, further than1.3 crore or 13 million people were coincidently watching the match on the Disney Hotstar OTT app, on a global basis.

10 million concurrent observers, on a single mobile app, with a global followership is in fact, not a record. It’s25.3 million concurrent observers on Disney Hotstar App, which happened in 2019 during India vs New Zealand World CupSemi-Final match.

A world record, because active observers on a single mobile app, at this scale and magnitude have infrequently happened.

How did Disney Hotstar manage this feat?

In this blog, we will discuss how Disney Hotstar ensures this inconceivable scalability of the app by understanding and decrypting its system armature, concurrency, scalability models and further.

But first, a brief preface to the world’s second- biggest, and India’s# 1 OTT platform Disney Hotstar.

Disney Hotstar An preface

The trip started with the launch of the Hotstar app, in 2015, which was developed by Star India. The 2015 Cricket World Cup was about to start, along with the 2015 IPL event, and Star network wanted to completely subsidise the insane viewership.

While Hotstar generated a massive 345 million views for the World Cup, 200 million views were generated for the IPL Tournament.

This was before the Jio launch, which happened in 2016. And watching television series and matches on the mobile was still at an incipient stage. The foundation was set.

The preface of Reliance Jio’s telecom network changed Internet operation in India, and this changed everything for Hotstar.

By 2017, Hotstar had 300 million downloads, making them the world’s alternate- biggest OTT app, only below Netflix.

In 2019, Hotstar was acquired by Disney, as part of their 21st Century Fox accession, and the app was rebranded to Disney Hotstar.

As of now, Disney Hotstar has 400 million downloads, with a whooping stoner base of 300 million active yearly druggies, and 100 million diurnal active druggies. nearly 1 billion twinkles of videos are watched on the app daily.

The 2019 IPL event was watched by 267 million Disney Hotstar druggies, and in 2020, a record 400 billion twinkles of content was viewed during the IPL matches.

In India, Disney Hotstar has a veritably violent focus on indigenous content, as further than 60% of the content is viewed in original languages. This is the reason they support 8 Indian languages, with plans to expand this number. The same strategy is visible in other countries as well, with deep focus on indigenous content, along with regular English content.

They’ve,000 hours of content for observers, and India accounts for roughly 40% of their overall stoner base.

As of now, Disney Hotstar is available in India, US, UK, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand and by 2023, they will launch in Vietnam.

Backend of Disney Hotstar

The platoon behind Disney Hotstar has assured an important backend by choosing Amazon Web Services or AWS for their hosting, while their CDN mate is Akamai.

nearly 100% of their business is supported by EC2 cases & S3 Object store is stationed for the data store.

At the same time, they use an admixture of on- demand & spot cases to ensure that the costs are controlled. For spot cases, they use machine literacy & data analytics algorithms which drastically reduces their overall charges of managing the backend.

AWS EMR Clusters is the service they use to reuse terabytes of data( in double- number) on a diurnal base. Note then, that AWS EMR is a managed Hadoop frame for recycling massive data across all EC2 cases.

In some cases, they also use Apache Spark, Presto, HBase fabrics in- sync with AWS EMR.

The core of scalability structure setup

Then are some intriguing details about their structure setup for cargo testing, just before an important event similar to IPL matches.

The entire setup of the Disney Hotstar structure has 16 TBs of RAM, 8000 CPU cores, with a peak speed of 32 Gbps for data transfer. This is the scale of their operations, which ensures that millions of druggies are suitable to coincidently pierce live streaming on their app.

Note then, that C4X cases are really high CPU- ferocious operations, icing a low price- per- cipher rate. With C4X cases, the app has high networking performance and optimal storehouse performance at no fresh cost.

Disney Hotstar uses these Android factors for having a important structure( and to keep the design approximately coupled for further inflexibility)

ViewModel For communicating with the network subcaste and filling the final result in

LiveData.
Room
LifeCycleObserver
RxJava 2
Dagger 2 and Dagger Android
AutoValue
Glide 4
Gson
Chuck Interceptor For icing nippy and easy debugging of all network requests, when the biases aren’t connected with the network.

How does Disney Hotstar ensure flawless scalability?

There live principally two models to insure flawless scalability Business grounded and Graduation grounded.

In business- grounded scaling, the tech platoon simply adds new waiters and structure to the pool, as the number of requests being reused by the system keeps on adding.

Graduation- grounded scaling is decided in those cases, wherein the details and the nature of the new processes aren’t clear. In similar cases, the tech platoon of Disney Hotstar haspre-defined graduations per million concurrent druggies.

As further requests are reused by the system, new structure in terms of graduations is added.

As of now, the Disney Hotstar app has a concurrency buffer of 2 million concurrent druggies, which are, as we know, optimally employed during the peak events similar as World Cup matches or IPL events.

In case the number of druggies goes beyond this concurrency position, also it takes 90 seconds to add new structure to the pool, and the vessel and the operation take 74 seconds to start.

In order to handle this time pause, the platoon has apre-provisioned buffer, which is the contrary of bus- scaling and has proven to be a better option.

The platoon also has an in- erected dashboard called Infra Dashboard, which helps the platoon to make smart opinions, grounded on the concurrency situations, and vaticination models of new druggies, during an important event.

By using fractions, the platoon behind Disney Hotstar has assured modularity to the coming position.

Then are some of the features that a typical runner holds

Player
Vertically and horizontally scrolling lists, which display other contents. Now, the type of data being displayed and the UI of these lists varies grounded on what type of content it is.
Watch and Play, Emojis.
Heatmap and crucial Moments.
Different type player Regulators. — Live, Advertisements, VoD( occurrences, pictures etc.)
Different type of announcement formats
Nudge to ask the stoner to login.
Nudge to ask stoner to pay for All Live Sports
Chromecast
Content Description
Error View and further

Planting intelligent customer for flawless performance

On occasions when quiescence in response is increased for the operation customer and the backend is overwhelmed with new requests, also there are established protocols, which absorb this unforeseen swell.

For example, in similar cases, the intelligent customer designedly increases the time interval between posterior requests, and the backend is suitable to get some respite.

For the end- druggies, there exists hiding & intelligent protocols, which ensures that they aren’t suitable to separate this purposeful time- pause, and the stoner experience isn’t hampered.

Besides, the Infradashboard continuously observes and reports every single severe error and fatal exception passing on millions of bias, and either they’re remedied in real- time, or emplace a retry medium for icing flawless performance.

This was just the tip of the icicle!

still, its system armature, database armature, If you wish to know further about how Disney Hotstar operates.

With further than 13 times of experience in accelerating business dexterity & stimulating digital metamorphosis for startups, enterprises, and SMEs, Winklix is a colonist in this space.

April 6, 2021April 6, 2021

Legal Issues To Consider : Mobile App Development 2021

Everyone’s dream choice while having mobile app development is to have technical giant app which user feels attractive to use and hence will succeed . However have you wondered why it is equally important to consider legal aspects of the app even during initial stage of app development ?

It is because each of the mobile app development life cycle may attract legal issues for you and in order to get yourself secured , you must take care of legal part in your app development as well . In this article , we will guide you about critical legal issues which might deviate your mind if not properly handled with care.

NDA ( Non Disclosure Agreement )

NDA or non-disclosure agreement is legally valid document under which parties bind themselves to not to disclose / share confidential information with any other person . That is the reason why we always encourage our clients to sign NDA even before sharing any of their business idea with us .
We can say NDA is one among few steps available to protect your product concept . You may challenge the agreement in courts if any party breaches its terms and condition . But wait , NDA is not just simple documents , rather it must include points which make it more informative are some of them are :

Definition of Confidential Information : It is proven to be beneficial for parties to specify all confidential information which may or may not be limited to financial data , know-how , show-how , operating , marketing or trade data . In addition to it it should also include information concerning to products , its ideas , solution and other confidential information .
Obligation of other party: Obligation of other party needs to be defined in advance including confidentiality clause as well as obligations involved in accordance to with other party can disclose information to its staff .
Choice of laws : While signing of any NDA , always try to write jurisdiction under which you will feel comfortable to contract .
Penalties : You should also write about the penalties it involved in case of breach of contract . It may be in monetary terms or fix sum of money .
Term : As per general rules of law , any NDA is valid for the term of 2, 3 or 5 years . Hence it is your sole choice for the information you want to protect . As the case may be , you may get involved in contract .
Obligation to return : You must include obligation to return information in case you want to or willing to switch to any other party .

Independent Contract Agreement

Contract agreement is concerned about points which you should mention before starting of with software development company . This agreement should be draft in a way that if will help you in guiding the process of cooperation in its entire duration of contract and what if situation in case of doubt and conflicts. That is the reason it is proven beneficial to write step by step how collaboration will move . For instance say it is worth mentioning which methodology your app developer will follow , eg agile methodology . In brief it should include the following :

Methodology of cooperation : It should include how cooperation will work to come up with result which is favourable to both the parties . It will also mention tools which you will be used , preferred methods of communication as well as procedure for arranging meetings .
Force majeure : In case of unpredicted pandemic situation or force majeure which might occur due to unavoidable circumstances then you must define the outcomes and mutual binding of it .
Exit plan : It is another beneficial points as it defined the exits plans if plan does not go according to plan has been specified in agreement and bth parties want to withdraw before the planned duration . It is worth including information about who will be owner of existing code , what will be payment due dates and penalties and so on.

Privacy Policy & Protection Of Data

Wondering what legal requirements you have to meet in connection with your data protection at personalised level ?
Protecting of your’s user personal data is one of the primary thing to focus on which is Las common cause to attract legal obligations . This requirements various from country to country . For instance say if you are planning to launch your app in European markets , you must adhere to GDPR compliances , while in case of USA , you need to take care of Children’s online privacy protection act.
This requirements also depends on in which industry your app is focus on . For instance Healthcare sector app must have HIPPA compliant . Since it is complex task and may require lawyer interference to draft proper agreement in app development process . In case of any data leaks , it will be app owner who will be held responsible for the same , hence it should be taken care with utmost priority .
Tips to fulfil personal data obligation :

Collect only limited amount of user data which is meant for your app only
Don’t ever try to sell or use data for the purpose other than for which you have collected data for
Make sure that your data is being seen by your authorised person only who make necessary use of it
Always showcase users that their data is protected with them and is in safe hands
Try to maintain documents of data received or you have so that if asked can be provided by you immediately.

Terms & Condition

Terms and condition as in case of privacy policy varies from country to country . You must specify following points while writing terms and condition in contract :

It is beneficial to include basic information about your company in general terms and condition
Conditions of service provision : In terms and condition define in advance your app working , its registration conditions as well as when agreement is concludes and terminated between both parties . Apart from it also mention your use of app as well as tech slacks about languages used along with conditions in which users account will be blocked
End user license agreement : This is concerned with binding users with your terms and condition while using your mobile app
Complaint processing : In terms and condition , try to include the process to handle and hear complaints as well as ways in which customer can contact you in case of need .
Limitation of liability : Define your liability in advance and make it clear to users . It will help you building trust among your users .

App Store Requirements

What is the use of mobile app if it has not been published on App Store or Google play store ? No body is going to download the same and all your investment will go into veins . That is the reason why your app should comply with all guidelines from Google and Apple to publish your app on their stores . All these policies focus on personal data protection as well as intellectual property rights .

Conclusion

Any mobile app development is complex project and involves various process . It is always beneficial to considerer all aspects involved in development of app which includes legal factors at initial starting . This will aid you to carry on your app to reach larger marketplace without facing any hurdle which may become obstacle in your success journey if not taken care of .