XV

Some people might call XV a social media platform; but at it's heart is just a messenger. It doesn't have dozens of buttons to let you tag someone, add photos and videos, send stickers, share game progress, or anything like that. It's just a way to have private chats with any number of people, optimised to be as small and unobtrusive as possible. It does have advanced features, but these are all accessed by slash commands, and aren't shoved in your face unless you go looking for them. This is an app that doesn't keep on pushing you to try its latest new features, and just lets you talk to people without disruptions.

The name comes from roman numerals. There is a setting called "XV mode", where all messages are automatically delayed by 5, 10, or 15 seconds. This was a deliberate choice to prevent people feeling pressured to respond immediately; and the platform still has automated features where a user can receive warnings if they pressure someone for a quicker response. The developers originally made it as a project at university, to see if removing pressure to respond in a timely manner would be good for users' mental health. There is a system where users get "negative reputation" if they often keep sending messages to someone who isn't responding. There is a kind of response called "Acknowledge" or "Okay" (AK/OK). AK causes the software to know that a messages has been read and is useful, without actually responding; you don't need to pop up a message on someone else's screen just to let them know that you've read their message. The difference between AK and OK is that the sender of the last message can check if they have been OKed; with AK they can't tell (and risk accruing reputation if they carry on talking). Etiquette is that you OK if someone invites you to a meeting or something (so they know you're coming), but AK for most things that don't need a response.