Messaging is another mobile experience where speed is of the essence. Let’s compare the approaches of Whatsapp and iMessage in how they inform the user that a message has been sent and delivered.

Whatsapp double checkmark indicator for message sent and received

Whatsapp uses a green checkmark to indicate that a message has been sent and another green check to indicate that it’s been received.

What the app does brilliantly is to show you the first checkmark immediately. The message may not have been fully uploaded to the Whatsapp servers, but Whatsapp assumes it will get there and shows the user an immediate positive indicator. This makes the user feel like Whatsapp is really fast at sending messages.

iMessage takes a very different approach that doesn’t create the same positive feedback loop.

iMessage’s progress bar showing the message progress of the message being sent

When a user sends an iMessage, the blue progress bar moves across the screen as the message is being sent. This sometimes takes a while depending on the user’s network connection. If they happen to be sending an image, then the progress bar will move even slower.

Why is this a worse experience? The user will inevitably be watching the progress bar as it goes across the screen and if it moves slowly, the app’s sense of speed will be lost. In the long run that may impact how the user feels about this app. In practice, Whatsapp and iMessage probably take around the same approximate time to send a text message or image message.

The way that each app communicates the status of the message can have a large impact on perceived speed of the app.