Is Email dead/dying...?

[Gimpymoo]

Outside of the commercial sector and marketing, is email dying?

I personally am not a fan of social media but the masses do like/tolerate it and to that end, it has reduced the purpose of email.

And even when talking about the commercial sector, the email space has been taken over by services like Slack and Teams and Facebook Workplace.

I have noticed companies now using a "live chat'esque" system where you leave a message and they reply as and when, avoiding the use of email.

If indeed email is dying, what is the cause?

For me, email could have been sooo much more, but it seems there was no interest to make it anything more than an electronic postal service.

Another problem I guess is owing to the volume of emails, it became more difficult to organise. Not impossible but those who could seemed to have no desire to solve that for the masses.

 

[Randomface74]

Here's a few to start us off:

1. Spam ruined it.
2. Email causes stress.
3. Email is impersonal.
4. Conversations are better had other ways.
5. Emailing on phones is a pita.
6. People end up not included in emails by mistake.

 

[Semple]

I don't see email dying until it's replaced with something as similar.

We use skype/teams at work, along with things like Yammer + various other platforms for sharing/collaborating etc, but email still seems to be the one medium that is always used.

Skype/Teams etc is useful for quick chats, but if you need to send a lot of text or diagrams/graphs it becomes unreadable in instant messaging.

I work for a global company and not everyone i work with/speak to is in the same timezone, which means it's not always possible to catch someone on skype/teams and then makes it easier to just use email.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

I don't see email dying until it's replaced with something as similar.

We use skype/teams at work, along with things like Yammer + various other platforms for sharing/collaborating etc, but email still seems to be the one medium that is always used.

Skype/Teams etc is useful for quick chats, but if you need to send a lot of text or diagrams/graphs it becomes unreadable in instant messaging.

I work for a global company and not everyone i work with/speak to is in the same timezone, which means it's not always possible to catch someone on skype/teams and then makes it easier to just use email.

Exactly this.

If you’re a manager needing to distribute a detailed test plan to a team spread across the globe, email is still your best option.

 

[Caged]

I'm not a fan of live chats where it's 50/50 whether you're going to be able to keep a record of what was said after the chat finishes, or if it just disappears. I also like that email is expected to not be like instant messaging - sometimes I will reply to a message at an odd time and the expectation that someone will reply on their own terms rather than feeling pressured is good.