What exactly is Status? How do we communicate it? - Appreciate your feedback

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I want to throw something out there. After some really good conversations with some of our loyal community members, dapp project leads, as well as some journalists in the crypto space – it appears that many people are still unsure exactly what Status is.

Common Questions over the pas couple days:

  • Is it a private messenger?
  • Is it a web3 dapp browser?
  • Is it a crypto wallet?
  • Is it an ethereum operating system/window into ethereum?
  • Is it an infrastructure project?
  • Oh so it’s like metamask for a phone?
  • Or wait, its like a private Argent wallet?
  • Isn’t Status a message client/wallet?

These are concerning questions to hear from a marketing dude. Either we are not articulating the product clearly enough. Or have conflicting messages in our comms. I personally think it is both…and both of those responsibilities lie on the comms team. We need to do a better job to effectively communicate the hard work everyone does.

Different Value Props to Different People
Also, in my conversations, ive come to realize that Status really is different to different people. In LatAm, access to store digital dollars (DAI) and ability to transfer them p2p are the most appealing. Amongst contacts at other dapp projects - access to more sophisticated defi tools is the most appealing. Amongst various community members, private messaging is important. So where does this leave our product positioning.

So what do we call it?
This question brings me back to an early thought we came up with and one that is actually gaining traction in places like China and now LatAm – The Super App. Its more than a payments tool. Its more than a messenger. Its more than an integrated version of those. It is a new web3, private, non-custodial version of all those. Does this term make sense to you? Does it capture what Status offers? Does it encourage you to explore all the features in depth?

LatAm and the Super Wallet
In our LatAm g2m strategy - we are leaning towards introducing Status as a Super Wallet. A wallet that provides access to a new type of currency, removes middle men from your financial self, and even allows you to send money in a chat without prying eyes (introducing the messenger). With WhatsApp being the dominant messenger app and even tools like telegram really struggling to earn market share, leading with a messenger (for now) seems like a miss.

So what does the Ethereum Community Call it?
The most concerning thing ive heard in recent chats, is that even our core community struggles to know exactly what Status is (once again, comms team have dropped this ball). With the emergence of defi first wallets such as Argent, the recent surge in Signal adoption, and the myriad of crypto wallets throughout the world – where does this leave Status? And how do we position ourselves with this core community (and imo, this is where our first 5k DAU will come from)?

Im going to continue these conversations with people int he community to learn more about what feature(s) they value most, and what the face value perception of Status is (messenger? wallet? browser? OS? etc…).

Id love to hear in the thread below:

  1. What Status feature do you value the most?
  2. If you would call Status one thing, what would it be?

This is something that we should have nailed a while ago, but Private, Secure, Communication seems to be failing – so lets fix it asap (right now for a big push for active users)

Some low hanging fruit we will do now

  • Run poll encouraging Ethereum Community to give us feedback on what they think Status is
  • Collect feedback in this thread for another few days (dont want to let this drag on too far)

Next Steps - 2-3 Weeks Out

  • Define Global Positioning (What doe we call Status)
  • Update primary content or NOT(social banner images, landing pages)
  • Promote this positioning with our community - make sure they know
  • Promote key feature(s) to ensure this community knows EXACTLY what Status is

For Me
1. What Status feature do you value the most?

  • P2P Crypto Payments - Ability to send crypto to my friends directly in the chat interface. Its the feature I use most with my friends and even with some of the Status cc’s. With crypto people, it is simple way to send funds. For my non-crypto friends, the easiest way to explain it is “Crypto-Venmo”. This also starts a DM with someone for long term engagement.

2. If you would call Status one thing, what would it be?

  • Super App - Its more than a messenger. Its more than a wallet. Its more than a dapp browser. Its more than those three combined. Its all three of those with private, secure, non-custodial technology. We explored this a while back (sorry @jarradhope for discouraging it back then) but it is now gaining some traction as a term.
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My 0.02c, I find the Status app to be more like a suite of complementary products, that have some convergence. Think Office or Adobe. So for example you might come for the chat experience and never use wallet or browser, or use other wallets on the market, and that’s fine.
The narrative gets harder since wallet and browser are utilities that enable other products: these are the ones people are interested in, that have the product-market fit.
Personally I dislike the super app term, as i find it inherently places an unrealistically high expectation on the product.

  1. Private Messaging, we can still catch up with Signal, if anything their growing adoption should help us. the more realistic benchmark now would be Session tho
  2. Private, secure communication app. whenever asked this is what I default to since that’s what everyone can extrapolate some understanding of, regardless of their interest / attitude to crypto. I list the rest as features of messaging, as people are already familiar with having apps / payments in chat.

I’m curious to hear how others see this, as this influences product design and how we choose to plan the interface.

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This is a tricky one, and I imagine that just like you guys I face the issue every time I am trying to pitch what is Status in a elevator pitch fashion :slight_smile: especially to people outside the community.

In the end, after many attempts, I found out that the two main added value about Status that can be effectively pitched … and understood … outside the community are
i/ we’re a private & resilient messenger
ii/ we’re this single app that gives you in a no brainer way everything you need to access this new world of decentralized services that you heard of in the news (today mostly: buy crypto, invest in DeFi products)

For ii “everything you need” is a browser, a wallet, a dap.ps portal of dapps, a wizard to get you going and create accounts… our value is to guide new users in this new word.

The tough part I faced is how to link these 2 value proposition without switching the pitch on the tech part.

It also seems to me we have a clearer differentiator compared to the competition in i (Elements of Private, Secure Messaging Apps) than ii.

Maybe we could try and do the same type of table comparison of features for ii with mobile apps like metamask, argent, imtoken, trust?

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I’ve noticed when speaking to candidates during interviews (those without a background in crypto) - the tangible aspects of Status are the easiest to grasp. When I ask in general “tell me what you know about the Status Network” , 90% of people jump straight to the Status app, and their descriptions always land on the concrete functions of Status (“it’s a wallet, it’s a chat app”).

Less frequently do people pick up on it having a browser (I guess the idea that you need a special web3 browser isn’t familiar, so that feature doesn’t stand out). I also noticed that (massive generalisation) candidates on the West of the globe don’t really resonate with the “super app” description (maybe because less likely to have used any one app in that way?)

I would also say that the concept of using a crypto token within the app’s socio economic network is pretty hard to grok (I often get asked, what are you selling? Are you taking a cut of fees from users? Is the SNT for trading?) - though maybe I could chalk that up to a lack of interview prep as we do share the whitepaper with candidates, and that clarifies how it all works (also somewhat correlated with whether they’re successful later on down the line in the hiring process).

For me:

  1. What Status feature do you value the most? - wallet, it’s great to be able to ping micropayments to people instantly. Not super frictionless as need gas and that can stop it feeling like a breeze.
  2. If you would call Status one thing, what would it be? - I generally go for “it’s a gateway to using the decentralised web and blockchain technology”, maybe not technically accurate/sophisticated but for the uninitiated what I’m getting at is - you’ve heard about blockchain/crypto, this is your user-friendly way of interfacing with it.
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What Status feature do you value the most?

More a goal: Using digital products without relinquishing control over privacy

Can’t name a single feature I most value because it’s the constellation of features. Group and 1:1 chat would definitely be the most frequently used for me in the short term

If you would call Status one thing, what would it be?

Web3 app
Web3 UI
Web3 manager
Web3 hub
Web3 door
Web3 window
Web3 control room

In any case, I see promise opting for Web3 and running with it. There’s a lot of supporting information online already describing Web3, that I think closely describes decentralized, p2p aspects. Joining and supporting that bandwagon seems like the best approach.

You’d get something like:
Status—a Web3 app for private, secure payment and communication

I like thinking of window-based navigation to help bucket the different layers of Status. As @maciej brought up a ‘suite’ of products, like Office or Adobe. I think this is accurate. Conceptually, I would distinguish the Web3 app itself (i.e. key management, ability to interface with Ethereum and a messaging protocol, notifications) from products in the suite. I see products in the suite, messaging and wallet, at the same level as dap.ps, Teller, Keycard; These to me are also products in the suite.

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I often describe it as censorship-resistant, secure and private alternative to WeChat. If people know what WeChat is, that’s the quickest way to get the point across. Other stuff naturally falls out of it (crypto based, can access dapps, need to invest in base infrastructure, etc).

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I remember having to deal with this question when I was writing an article on status (welcome guide).

I think it is confusing to tell people Status is A & also B & also C.
It’d be better if one says Status is A (but it also allows you to access B & C)
i.e
Status is a Private & Secure Messenger (but it also allows you to access a web3 browser & a non custodial wallet).
The main message should be “Private & Secure Messenger”

A couple of reasons are:

  1. Think of it as the way e-commerce does it, they sell the main product, this is what everyone scrolling through their page sees. Once they click information about the main product, they see other extra features (free things, bonuses), Upsells!!

  2. Status allows anyone to do magical things with the Wallet & Web3 Browser but right now, it’s very hard to do those magical things.

  • The wallet supports only Erc20 tokens
  • Yes, everything is built on ethereum, DeFi is on fire right now. Majority of DeFi products have good UI/UX for people accessing with a Desktop, it’s crappy on Mobile.
  • Also most DeFi products only allow you to connect a wallet with “Metamask”, “Walletconnect” (see argent).

I feel the main product is the Messenger
Wallet & Web3 Browser are just additional features (magic) that you could access with the Status app.

The Wallet & Web3 Browser still need a lot of development to catch up with the Messenger (especially since notifications & images are going to be supported soon).
Also a lot of partnerships & DeFi being built for mobile users.

TL;DR
Status should be a communicated as a Private & Secure Messenger.

My 2 cents .

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Well, I am a new user here and I may be able to understand the voices of the laity (because I am also part of this).

I agree with @henrystats, the main highlight of the Status is the messenger; the wallet and the browser are additional. In the my circle of contacts people are not interested or do not understand what cryptocurrencies is, so talking to them about the differentials of Status compared to other chat apps like Signal is:

  1. Decentralized; which means that it is not possible to be censored or to have data retention and identification of who is using it.
  2. You don’t need cell phone numbers, e-mail or anything else identifiable.
  3. It is an application that uses the best current encryption protocols.
  4. It has an encrypted database, different from Signal.
  5. It is a transparent application in what it does and verifiable: open source.
  6. It has a refined and very beautiful design. (@maciej)

For me, and the people I have talked to about Status, these are the most important points and that I have been able to express the importance of these items for a messaging application.

The only difficulties I have had with Status is getting people to understand why they are forced to have a random three word name and cannot simply define whatever name they want. Honestly, this has been a challenge, as people get discouraged by it. And at this point, I still insist that developers can pay attention, I even created a request in the forum on the topic.

In conclusion, I see Status as a definitive messenger for 1:1 and group chats. It is secure, private, decentralized and resistant to censorship.

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