Enhancing Asynchronous User Communication with Cross Platform and Channel Agnostic Messaging Services

Choosing an optimal channel for communication has become a difficult task for the user. The number of options continuously increases with new devices and services. For asynchronous communication we nowadays use several mobile messaging services such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS), in addition to ubiquitous e-mail that is available on the desktop and mobile devices. Users face two main difficulties. First, the sender has no information about the recipient’s device status or preferences. Second, the sender may not have access to a messaging client or online messaging service that supports message types the recipient can receive. These challenges represent opportunities for new services that we explore through design science research. We develop a system architecture and client applications for communication across Internet and mobile cellular networks. As the user composes the content of a message, the system recommends the optimal service. Based on the sender’s selection, it constructs the appropriate message type and sends it to the recipient. The paper describes the system architecture and the recommender model and assesses the properties of the system in relation to the system requirements.