1. Google Duo, a clean, simple mobile video calling (and soon, audio calling) app launched this week to take on Facetime. The jury is still out whether its simplicity will carry the day, or it will become the latest failed Google social tool (Buzz, Wave, Plus).
2. Here’s a UX secret that will ruin apps for you: artificial waiting time. Facebook and other online services are delivering services like authentication and approval more slowly to seem credible to users who might otherwise assume the processes aren’t really being run. (This reminds me of another counterintuitive story about how people experience waiting: reducing wait time did not reduce airport travelers’ complaints, but moving baggage carousels did!)
3. To get more of of social media data, we should be thinking like anthropologists. This HBR post argues that social media listening should not be solely relegated to the marketing department. Instead, social listening can provide leadership with insights developed by going beyond the science of data management to the art of interpretation.
4. In a series of vivid physical and digital product examples, Julie Zhou explains why what you see is what you use: the power of visibility and defaults in design.
5. The CEO of Kik weighs in on the bot hype cycle: four months after the Facebook bot launch, stilted conversational interfaces have not killed off apps. However, their inherent advantages, like consolidation through a single interface, are signs that the early technology has potential.

Weekend fun: Thanks to @nytgraphics for my favorite tweet of the Rio Olympics. Here’s a tremendous toy for font nerds with a penchant for the authentic 80s vibe of Stranger Things. For more high minded visualization, explore Wikipedia as if it were the universe.

Summer fun: Friday 5 will be taking a breather to enjoy the tail end of summer. See you back here the first Friday after Labor Day: 9/9.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.