I uninstalled WhatsApp Messenger recently because it was getting too bloody slow for everyday use and am now looking for a new text messaging replacement. Beluga was the first app that stepped up to the plate as a replacement — partly because I heard about it on a podcast, but also because it reminded me of a Raffi song.
Something Whale
To call Beluga a fail whale would just be mean and vaguely Twitter-esque, so instead I’ll call Beluga the Not So Compatible With My Lifestyle whale. It’s a decent app with a clean, speedy UI, fast messaging, and some interesting uses of geo-location, but after having spent a few days with Beluga, I just can’t get comfortable with it.
Pods, not People
One of the main issues I have with this app and service is the focus on groups (pods) and not people (people). Beluga seems to have been built from the ground up as a group messaging system, and you can quickly and easily establish “pods” that center around a time or a place — much like a context-sensitive chatroom. So instead of meeting your buddies at the corner and then deciding on where to go, Beluga becomes the corner and you all decide on your outing from within the app. But what about if you’re just talking to one other person in a pod built for two? In this case, Beluga tends to send you decidedly too much information.
Every single push notification from Beluga shows both the sender name, as well as the name of the pod. This tends to cut unnecessarily into the length of the notification preview — after all, why do I need to know the name of the chat room when it’s just me talking to my sister?
Reach to Send
Another Beluga pet peeve is the location of the Send button: it’s at the top of the screen, completely out of the way. So instead of simply pressing a modified Enter key or tapping above the “p” key to send a message, you have to reach a good inch above the iPhone’s keyboard to press Send — and that’s for every single message you type. No thanks, Beluga.
Where to now?
Beluga’s focus on group chats and the absurd positioning of its send key make it a non-candidate for the spot of WhatsApp replacement, so I’ll continue to check out a few other messenger apps until I find the right one. The next app up is Kik messenger, and although I don’t quite get its name, it is looking mighty fast and sleek.
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