Instant messaging is not (entirely) asynchronous

17 February 2023

Effective communication is essential for collaboration, especially for remote teams. While instant messaging may appear to be either synchronous or asynchronous communication, it does not fit perfectly into either category.

To ensure that your messages are understood and receive prompt attention, it’s crucial to strike a balance between providing sufficient information and responding quickly. If you’re unclear in your communication or take too long to respond, you’re likely to receive similarly slow or unclear responses.

For this reason:

When messaging someone out of the blue, treat it as asynchronous communication (e.g. e-mail):

• Explain what you want and provide sufficient context.
• Be succinct and upfront, but add enough details, such as what, why, who, when, where, and how.

When exchanging messages rapidly, treat it as synchronous communication (e.g. phone call, video chat):

• Communicate promptly and clearly what you expect from the other person.
• If you need to leave for an indeterminate amount of time, inform the other person. You wouldn’t put the phone away and leave without telling the other person that you’re leaving.

But why? Because not all messages require immediate response, and not all responses can be given immediately.

Examples

Synchronous

e.g. face-to-face conversation, phone call, video chat, back-and-forth exchange of messages in IM

Appropriate:

• – “Hello, can you help me with X so that we can achieve Y?”
• – “Sure, have you tried doing Z?”
• – “Not yet! I’ll try it and message you back in 30 minutes.”

Inappropriate:

• Leaving a video chat abruptly without notice or turning your back on someone during a face-to-face conversation.
• Putting the phone call on hold without notifying the other person that you need to do something else.
• Suddenly stopping replies in instant messaging (e.g. Slack, Teams) when actively having a conversation for the past few minutes.

Asynchronous

e.g. e-mail, voice-mail, SMS, sending an unexpected message in IM

Appropriate:

• “Hello, I am trying to do X in order to achieve Y, which is necessary because A, B, and C. I have tried to do Z, but due to the following error message (…) I haven’t been able to. Can you help me with this, or do you know someone who might be able to assist me? Thanks in advance, etc.”

Inappropriate:

• Just “Hello” or “Hey, can you help me with something?”

Relevant reading

• No Hello: https://nohello.net
• The XY Problem: https://xyproblem.info/