I don't usually post twice in a morning but I was partiko-ing and realised that there is a new icon on the bottom of the screen on my Pariko app - CHATS!! What the! And where better to dance about it than here?

Turns out it was launched at Steemfest - you can read their post about it here. It's something many folks have been waiting for because it means they don't have to go to Discord to private chat. If the Steemian you want to message doesn't have Partiko (which you can get on Google Play) then your comment will just go on their latest posts.

It's always been a bit crazy that we DIDN'T have messaging built in to any of the interfaces. I know there's people here who can't bear to go to Discord as it's too time consuming for them, so this is a really nice answer to that problem (@buckaroo, I'm looking at you!). And I love the way they've called it 'chats' - it's cute, informal, and personal, and fits super nicely in the bottom bar. You can also go to someone's profile and message them from there. Check out how it looks below.

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I find this really exciting because it's another reason that makes Steemit more legitimate in the eyes of social media users. Messaging apps are HUGE in the social media world and this helps us keep up to date with this trend. A lot of our interactions don't take place in the public sphere - it's all via private groups and messaging apps, which gives a little lie to the term 'social' media, but still, we're interacting and engaging. Remember having to pay for SMS? You'd never text someone overseas as it'd cost a fortune. Those days are well and truly over - one of things I love about Steemit is that I've got friends in all sorts of places from Nicaragua to Argentina to Poland to America, and it costs me nothing to interact with them, learn from them and support them. Without a messaging service, Steemit really wasn't competing with Facebook or other message apps at all. Now, quite possibly, it can.

I was a little reluctant to use Partiko to begin with, because I was really used to Steemit, but now it's my primary mobile interface for reading and commenting. They run a pretty good gig too - they have easter egg prizes when they do a new update, giving away steem prizes to those who find them within 24 hours and the updates seem to keep on coming, making it easier and more intuitive to use all the time. Go check out their account @partiko if you haven't already.

The other cool thing about it is that it's going to really suit us alternative folk even more - the ones drawn to the anonymity, to some degree, that Steemit provides. Dark social - the sharing of links and media via messaging like emails or messager service - can't be tracked in the same way other content is. And look at just how much of our information is shared via 'dark social' - that's the dark blue bar. Why didn't Steemit have this to start with? That's why the people working on interfaces like @partiko are really valuable, because they're helping Steemit be competitive in the real world, which is what we're all hoping for, right? We want the Steem we've earnt to be worth something.

Most of our interactions on line are in private messenger services.

The only way this platform will grow is if it makes interactions and engagement a priority. This is the reason I'm here - to interact with all you incredible people, and @partiko made this just a little bit easier.

Funny though, when I went to experiment by sending someone I knew a partiko message, I realised that hardly anyone I know is on Partiko! Maybe this will change things.

Do you use Partiko?

Would you consider the switch?

Will someone please send me a Partiko Message so I can see this baby in action?

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