Zillow Now Has DMs, and They Might Actually Be Useful

I'll say it: There are too many messaging apps out there. There's WhatsApp, Messenger, Snapchat, Discord, Signal, Telegram, and iMessage (if you're on iPhone), and that's just the dedicated chat apps. You might have to keep up with new messages on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, even Spotify. If I install one more app with a messaging feature, I'm going off the grid.

As it happens, another non-chat app is joining this list. On Tuesday, Zillow—yes, Zillow—announced its app will also now support messaging. Starting today, you can send people messages in the app you use to look at houses you will most likely never actually buy. We live in interesting times, indeed.

Of course, Zillow's goal here isn't to become the next WhatsApp. In fact, you can only choose to chat with one other person on Zillow—at least, that's the case for now. The idea of Zillow messaging is strictly to chat about listings you find through the app, without needing to leave Zillow to do so. The goal for most app developers is to keep users on the platform for as long as possible, so there's a cynical case to make here for Zillow trapping its users within the app. If you don't move to another chat app to talk about a listing, you're more likely to interact with additional houses on the app.

But I actually see the logic here: If you're in a housing market with a lot of listings, you're probably firing off a number of them every day to interested parties—namely, whoever you're buying the house with. Keeping those conversations in the same app as those listings could be a smart way to keep track of all those houses, instead of the usual routine of "wait, which house was that? I can't find the text you sent me." And the fact that Zillow is limiting this experience to one chat partner at this time means you're not going to be DMing a number of people about houses in your area. This does seem designed for people who are trying to buy a house together to do so with a bit more convenience.

How to try Zillow messaging

This feature is live as of this article. To get started, open Zillow on your smartphone or in your web browser. On the app, tap "Inbox;" on the web, click your profile in the top-right, then choose "Inbox."

In order to start a chat, you need to invite the other person to join you. To do so, choose "Invite now," which will pull up a pop-up about the feature. This screen explains the invite link is good for 24 hours, and that you can only invite one person for now.

Credit: Lifehacker

Choose "Share invitation," and Zillow will let you share it wherever you'd like. You can copy the link, and paste it in another chat app, or choose a destination for Zillow to share the link to directly.

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