Screentime: The Inventor of the Hashtag Is Still a Twitter Loyalist
Product designer Chris Messina prefers tweeting to TikTok, black screens to busy ones, and phone batteries that never go dead.
Welcome to Screentime, where tech leaders divulge their most personal phone habits.
In spite of everything, the man who invented the hashtag is still enthralled with Twitter. Chris Messina, the “product therapist” who first proposed the hashtag function in a 2007 blog post,, said that Twitter is still the most used app on his phone. Formerly at Google and Uber, Messina is now a product lead at Republic, a private investing platform for startups. His digital life is constantly spilling over into his IRL. He rides his Peloton daily, makes public Spotify playlists and, yes, tweets…a lot (he’s up to over 113,000 followers). Messina takes us through all of his technology usage, from emojis (yay) to digital assistants (nay) to dating apps (on occasion).
What kind of phone do you have? When did you get it?
iPhone 13 Pro Max. Last November.
What’s your lock screen?
My lockscreen and wallpaper are black (like my soul!) so that I can more easily take screenshots of notifications and capture new app icons, which I then post to this thread. I love the art of icon design.
