How About Drag and Drop Messaging?

khess 0 752 Views

On the heels of my idea from yesterday, "A New Social Media? Instantaneous Messaging" (Yes, I realize that it should be "Medium" not Media--so sue me), I've decided to grace you with another idea that I've had for some time: Drag and Drop Messaging. This idea, that you'd think would have come from the Apple world, is fairly simple...and revolutionary.

Drag and Drop Messaging, as I said, is simple in concept and revolutionary in action but possibly complex in creation.

Here's how it works in my mind:

You want to send an email message to someone.
You write the message in what looks like a sticky note box.
Drag it to a "Mail" icon on your desktop and drop it there.
A popup list of Contacts appears.
You select the Contact(s) you want the message to go to.
The message goes to the recipient(s).

Alternatively, if you have "favorite" contacts (or distribution lists), you can have those as icons or as a short list on your desktop that you drag your messages to for an automatic send.

The other idea is to have messaging tied to an IM client where you can drag your messages to your buddies on your IM list and have the messages automatically send to the ones you select.

I hate having to go through all the gyrations that email requires. I'd like to make it even more "object oriented" and easy to use with Drag and Drop capability.

So, again, what do you brilliant developers think of my little plan? Are there any of you out there skilled or brave enough to take on such a task? If so, send me a Private Message or use the Comments section to let me know.

Oh, and it needs to be cross platform (All operating systems) so that everyone can enjoy a truly integrated messaging system.

Dani AI

Generated

A practical follow-up to ' drag-and-drop messaging concept and a nod to 's caution about public disclosure. The idea—treating a composed message as a desktop object that can be dropped onto recipients or pinned targets—is strong. Real-world usefulness depends on careful choices around where the feature lives (app vs OS), how accidental sends are prevented, and how cross-platform integration is handled.

Two realistic architectures make sense. The fastest path is an in-client feature (plugin or built into a mail/IM app) so the drag target and sending logic stay together. The more integrated path is a small native helper per OS that registers a drop target and forwards the drop to a portable core via a simple IPC layer. The hybrid (native drop helper + portable messaging core) gives native feel without rewriting messaging logic for every platform. Payloads should be explicit: minimal metadata, attachment references (not opaque blobs), and a canonical wrapper so mail/IM transports can handle the drop predictably.

Design and safety items to bake in from day one: a clear preview/confirmation step (configurable for pinned favorites), an undo/outbox window and queued sending for offline recipients, strong visual affordances on drag-over so accidental drops are obvious, and keyboard/screen-reader alternatives for accessibility. Treat recipient targets as presence-aware for IMs and provide secure handling for attachments and optional end-to-end encryption for sensitive content.

Prototype roadmap: build a compose widget + contact chooser inside an existing open client or a lightweight Electron app, add a single-platform native drop helper to validate the approach, then expand. Note: public forum disclosure can affect commercialization or patent options—consult legal advice before formal filings, or embrace open-source to attract contributors. Credit to for the concept and to for the practical caution.

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caperjack 875 I hate 20 Questions

sounds like a neat idea ,but i think you may have let it out of the bag in the wrong way ,you should have made contact with programmer,programmer's for a software company/email client or such and tried to sell them you idea , not let it out on a open forum,at leaast you could have posted it in the software development section

Edited by caperjack because: n/a
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