Social television applications have emerged as a potentially valuable convergence of media and communication, but questions remain about the utility and nature of the communication experiences they will provide. We present our study of STV3, an application that adds freeform text and voice chat capabilities to the conventional television-viewing experience. We conducted an in-depth field study of STV3 to understand how friends integrate communication through social television into their lives. Our results reveal users' choices of communication modality, their topics of conversation, and the sense of connectedness that was fostered through their use of STV3. Our findings indicate that participants overwhelmingly preferred text chat to voice chat, and that they often communicated about topics unrelated to the television content.

We examine how ambient displays can augment social television. Social TV 2 is an interactive television solution that incorporates two ambient displays to convey to participants an aggregate view of their friends' current TV-watching status. Social TV 2 also allows users to see which television shows friends and family are watching and send lightweight messages from within the TV-viewing experience. Through a two-week field study we found the ambient displays to be an integral part of the experience. We present the results of our field study with a discussion of the implications for future social systems in the home.

We report on a field evaluation of a prototype social television system (Social TV) that incorporates lightweight messaging as well as ambient awareness of user presence on the system. This evaluation was conducted over a two-week period and involved the participation of ten households. Participants appreciated the ability to see their buddies' presence on the system, the ability to see or suggest the programs they were currently watching, and the ability to send short messages to one another. The presence facilities available in Social TV also allowed participants to learn more about one another's TV viewing habits and preferences, and fostered a sense of connectedness between them. However, they also felt constrained by the limitations of the communication options available to them and demanded free-form text or voice chat to be able to fully express themselves.