Why did the 50+ generation fall in love with WhatsApp?
Every day, at the crack of dawn, my phone is flooded.
Flooded with life-lessons, positivity and inspiration. Thanks to the ‘cute’ Good Morning messages sent on Whats App by the older generation in our family circle.
Words of wisdom strewn over snow clad mountains, blooming flowers and beaming gods & goddesses. If I were to compile that wisdom in a book, I won’t need to read a motivational article ever again in my life.
Regardless of my opinion on these ‘good morning messages’, I have to admit that the adoption of WhatsApp by people in the 50+ generation has been unprecedented. Whether its mom/dad, the neighbourhood uncle/aunties or my elderly relatives, everyone I know, uses WhatsApp.
And boy, they don’t just use it. They love it. From messaging to sharing photos, from updating status to audio/video calling, the 50+ generation are avid users of many WhatsApp features.
As a product manager who day-dreams about building products used by millions of users, I am fascinated by the WhatsApp success story. To understand the reasons behind this massive success, I did some digging around.
Here are my findings on why the older generation fell in love with WhatsApp:
1. Ease of getting started
In WhatsApp, your phone number is your identity. And your WhatsApp contacts are your phone contacts. The journey to start messaging can’t get simpler: Accept Terms & Conditions -> Verify your phone number -> Enter name for your profile -> Search for a contact -> Send Message.
No username, password or any other pesky details required whatsoever. With a Sign-up process that’s completely frictionless, WhatsApp has ensured that the users start deriving value almost instantaneously.
Who wouldn’t want to get started?
2. An Amazing Alternative to SMS
WhatsApp came at a time when there was only way to message someone — SMS. It cost money and was asynchronous. Nothing apart from text messages could be sent. There was no way to reliably know that your message was delivered.
And then came WhatsApp. It was FREE and supported instant messaging. One could seamlessly share contacts, images and other multi-media. It was highly reliable and I would instantaneously know whether my message was delivered or not.
Could it get any better?
3. Low Learning Curve
Everyone who had a phone knew how to use the humble SMS. The texts from different sources (service provider, third parties, friends) could be viewed together at a glance. They were arranged in a single view pane one after another. For any message, you could see the sender’s name. Clicking on a message would open it. You could read the message and respond by clicking the reply icon/button.
Sounds a lot like WhatsApp. It very well was. For all practical purposes, WhatsApp was ‘SMS on steroids.’ It looked and worked a lot like the humble SMS with which people were very comfortable.
Besides, searching on WhatsApp was identical to how you would search a name in your phone book.
When the user’s had it so easy, why would they not use it?
4. A non-intimidating UI
WhatsApp has an uncluttered landing screen. With a white background, muted graphics, and minimal features, it is easy for elder people to use.
The names of senders are clearly highlighted. The thumbnail image against each sender adds a personal touch. And the search icon on the top right is clearly visible.
The audio-visual cues relating to sent message (single tick accompanied with a ‘tuck’ sound), read message (double tick) give clarity to the user on the status of the message.
A UI like that would give me confidence and clarity. Wouldn’t it?
5. Network Effects
Another key driver for WhatsApp’s adoption was the emotional and functional value it provided to the older users.
- A lot of times, our parents/relatives would need 1)A contact number or 2)An important document or 3)Images/Videos of a family function. Imagine how difficult it was to share these in the pre-WhatsApp era. But now you could just say “I will WhatsApp them to you”.
- Parents love to stay connected with their children. With WhatsApp, parents could stay connected to their kids 24X7 through asynchronous messaging. Sharing of selfies, video calling and family photos helped elevate the entire experience of being connected. So, once the youngsters began using the app, parents were also willing to give it a try.
- With inter-city/inter-country migration, people often lost touch with their relatives and friends. WhatsApp’s ability to form groups gave people a shared space with friends and family. Where they could reminisce about old times, give important updates, plan for family functions and share motivational messages.
With so much emotional value at stake, who would want to miss out?
Looking at the above points, it isn’t hard to understand why the older generation fell in love with WhatsApp.
WhatsApp did a lot of things right — a simple activation flow, clear value proposition and an easy to use interface.
The WhatsApp success story provides important lessons for anyone looking to build products that scale well. Some of the key takeaways for me (as a product manager) are as follows:
- Make it easy for the users to get started.
- Keep the learning effort as low as possible: Leverage on what the user already knows. The easier it is to use your product, faster will be the adoption.
- Product Market fit is crucial:- When users begin to easily understand the value provided by your product, it opens the floodgates for viral growth.
While each product must carve out its own journey of success, lessons from other successful products can often provide a guiding light.
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