| Status | Last updated |
|---|---|
| Draft | March 2, 2022 |
Chat effects provide a delightful experience to the user. They add personality and flair to the timeline.
We are not currently looking to add any more chat effects to Element. Too many chat effects, and too many triggers could cause users to turn chat effects off. If timeline take-overs happen too often we may frustrate our users instead of delight them. This is likely to occur in large rooms but may also happen in DMs of one or two people.
Backslash commands for chat effects are handy as these are known by power users and less common. The use of Emojis as triggers lowers the barrier to usage, and increases the chances of users happening across this delight feature by accident but the 'shadow' of that is it may occur too often - or on emoji's that users send for other reasons.
Chat effects are full timeline take-overs in the Element clients. Each chat effect has 2 associated triggers; a backslash command, and an emoji.
To turn chat effects on:
- Head to Settings > Preferences
- In the Timeline section find: "Show chat effects (animations when receiving e.g. confetti)"
- Ensure the toggle is "on"
| Command | Emoji | Effect | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| /snowfall | ❄️ | light-grey balls fall slowly from the top of the screen to the bottom | Web & Android (backslash only) |
| /rainfall | :raincloud: | blue lines fall from the top of the screen to the bottom, looking like rain | Web only |
| /confetti | 🎉 | multi-colour squares fall slowly across the screen, from top to bottom | Web & Android |
| /spaceinvaders | 👾 | the space invader emoji falls from the top of the screen to the bottom | Web only |
| /heart | 💝 | love hearts float across the screen | Web only |
| /fireworks | 🎆 | fireworks burst across the screen | Web only |
| Now | Next | Future |
|---|---|---|
| - We are no longer accepting new chat effect contributions. - Our list of 6 is plenty and we run the risk of having so many we frustrate users with unexpected timeline takeovers. |
- We need to consider the animation over platform. This is a delightful experience and brings fun and joy to our apps, but how does it translate cross-platform? Can we animate the emoji rather than the timeline? This may be a better experience for those users on smaller screens or devices. - We do not have any chat effects on iOS - We also need to consider chat effects in Threads. |
- How might we offer both emoji animation and full-screen takeover? Apple do this well; It's always in the senders hands. Emojis can be sent with or without their animation effect. - How else might chat effects bring delight to our users for example, New Years Eve 24h animation or others. |
Chat effects are great for our personal messaging or community members however, in the workplace they may not be appropriate. Therefore, users must turn on chat effects in order to see the timeline take over. In the future we may offer options such as; Enabling by room, space, or meta-space.