Should software refer to itself in the first-person, especially in error messages?

(I've searched this StackExchange site for posts relating to the use of first-person pronouns, but all I found concerned how to address the user and not the software, e.g. Form instructions/guidance - first person vs third person? and Which grammatical person should I use when writing to the user?).

Should my software (which targets unsophisticated users) refer to itself in the first-person, especially in error messages? (See also Should error messages apologize? )

I noticed that Apple's macOS (and many Apple ecosystem products) sometimes refers to itself in the first-person which personifies the user's computer, whereas the Windows' platform prefers more neutral and emotion-free language (and feel free to insert a joke about the usability of many user-hostile Linux bash command-line error messages).

For example, here are some examples of message text in my application:

  • After searching the user's computer network for available servers:

    • Neutral: "Discovered {0} servers. The first server has been selected."
    • Personal: "I discovered {0} servers in your network and I have pre-selected the first server I found for you."

  • If the search failed:

    • Neutral: "Error: Discovery of servers failed. Reason: {0}."
    • Personal: "I'm sorry but the network search failed due to an error that I cannot resolve myself. Your operating-system tells me the reason was {0}".

I'm concerned that using personal terms and referring to the software in the first-person comes across as condescending and unnecessarily verbose (in fact, I cringe when I read the messages back to myself) - but at the same time this may actually be welcomed by my users.

Has any peer-reviewed research been done to investigate the effects of personal language in software error messages, especially when the software refers to itself in the first-person?

Tags: