Family Group Chat: Family Needs to Manage Contact and Conflict

Many instant messaging applications offer group chat feature where members can share messages and make voice or video calls with a group of social contacts. We conducted a study to understand how families use group chat and what challenges they face. We found family members develop certain habits in using their family group chat, and their behavior changes when they are separated by distance or during a specific situation such as a conflict. Family members might have challenges to construct meaning from a pile of messages, find a specific message from the past and catch up with the new messages posted in the group. They need more control over when they wish to deliver a message and better ways to share their experiences.