Kicks and Kisses

Google has blurred the thin line between messaging applications and web messaging application. So it’s no wonder that I do most of my unplanned chats on Gmail. Once I was talking to 4 of my friends at a time in my Gmail chat pop-ups. If you look at the screen the first chat pop-up opens from the right corner. My screen was full and now one more friend comes online. But when i tired to open a new chat window the first one disappeared. I again opened the 1st one window by clicking on the list of people and now second friend window disappeared. In short the least active window will disappear. It took me a moment to realize that only four windows could be open at once on my PC. I tried this thing with wide screen laptop and it supported five active windows. So it must be dependent upon the width of the screen. And after a limit it starts disappearing.

If the disappeared fellow messages you than his window appears and the least active disappear. Assume a case that you talking to 10 people at a time than probably you will see an animation of windows coming and going and you will not be able to write .

Where do those windows go actually? Can’t the previous windows remain minimized when I open more and more. One design solution could be minimizing and stacking those previous windows. When the person messages you it could change its color to orange as it does in active chat window. All information will be visible to me at the same time. I will be more in control when system will keep me informed.