Alexander Kluge: Synchronous and asynchronous chat

March 1 2007

Alexander discovers a feature that, without benefit of caffeine, I'm not sure whether it ships in Sametime 7.5, Sametime 7.5.1, or Notes 8+Sametime 7.5.1...but any which way, a new Sametime feature:

Today I found a feature in Lotus Sametime 7.5 I was not aware of. If you reply in a chat window after your buddy went offline, you will get this dialog box:

Image:Alexander Kluge: Synchronous and asynchronous chat
Pretty cool.  Now I realize that some would prefer Sametime to store offline chats for later delivery, but I like giving the sender the option to go asynchronous more.  It's good recognition of how e-mail and Sametime can work together.

Link: Alexander Kluge: Synchronous and asynchronous chat >

Ed Brill | Manchester, England UK Category:  Sametime 7.5  Add/View Comments [16]

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  1. 1  Dennis Ruddigkeit http://www.ruddigkeit.net | 3/1/2007 2:27:21 AM

    "I'm not sure whether it ships in Sametime 7.5, Sametime 7.5.1, or"

    It does not seem to be a feature of version 7.5, because in 7.5, if my chat partner goes offline my chat windows greys out.

    However, a nice feature, but I would like to have the message queued and sent when the partner comes online again.

  1. 2  Roberto Boccadoro  | 3/1/2007 4:03:58 AM

    As far as I can tell it shipped in 7.5 at least, I always see the option of sending a mail if the partner goes offline while I am writng.

  1. 3  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 3/1/2007 6:43:45 AM

    At the risk of violating my NDA, the Sametime component of Notes 8 DOES have this behavior. :-D

    (I'll expect legal to call be before 11.)

  1. 4  Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 3/1/2007 7:28:40 AM

    @3- There will be a knock at your door momentarily :)

  1. 5  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 3/1/2007 7:44:01 AM

    That is a cool and very needed benefit.

    But don't see it in 7.5, have to check if it is a settings option.

  1. 6  Alexander Kluge http://www.kluge.de | 3/1/2007 8:28:35 AM

    @Nathan: You are right :-) But I asked before publishing this ;-) So hopefully they will not kill me.

    Yes , it only works if you use Notes 8

  1. 7  Adam Gartenberg http://www.adamgartenberg.com | 3/1/2007 9:31:04 AM

    The answer is that this is a new feature that will ship with Lotus Sametime 7.5.1. It will provide the option to send the e-mail via your default e-mail program or allow you to specify a different one. What it does from there is copy the chat transcript into the e-mail and then place your most recent (unsent) comment above it in the e-mail (so that the unsent comment looks like e-mail text instead of part of the chat transcript).

    I have to say, in addition to the "big" things we announced at Lotusphere (point-to-point video, Microsoft Office/Outlook presence integration, Linux Server, Mac client), there are *a lot* of incremental enhancements and refinements coming in Sametime 7.5.1 that really will make the user experience even better than in Sametime 7.5 This is just one of them.

    @2 - This is new in Sametime 7.5.1, but because of the iterative design and beta process that we've been running here in IBM, IBMers actually have had this (and some other post-7.5 function) as part of the "Sametime 7.5 Blue" version available internally.

  1. 8  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 3/1/2007 9:34:05 AM

    Thank goodness Adam answered this, I get itchy fingers on the keyboard.

  1. 9  Fredrik Stöckel  | 3/1/2007 10:16:51 AM

    This will be a very nice and welcome feature. But Imho, IM messages are not mail, and I'd preferred the solution @1 mentioned: “have the message queued and sent when the partner comes online again".

    This is how it works in Google talk, yahoo IM and it’s very nice and convenient, no need to change “perspective” if the user goes offline temporarily… this could perhaps be a setting in the future?

  1. 10  Ports http://www.mrports.com/ | 3/2/2007 12:16:05 PM

    @9 Fredrik, this is not how it works in Google Talk. If your chat partner goes offline then it will send the remaining conversation as email from your gmail account. Just as Sametime does.

    This is why synchronous and asynchronous communications are complementary.

  1. 11  Michael Urspringer http://www.urspringer.de | 3/3/2007 1:25:13 AM

    BTW: It does also work when your chat partner is in "Do not disturb" mode and you have still you chat window open but he has his windows already closed (as long he has his window still open you can chat normally as before).

  1. 12  Paul S  | 3/3/2007 5:31:00 PM

    I agree with @1 and @9--I would like to see the pop-up dialog to provide users with the option of either sending the conversation via email or queuing it to be sent when the recipient next connects via Sametime.

    IM conversations are usually far different from email and it's often not appropriate to send a final remnant of an IM conversation via email (we all get enough emails as it is.)