Great, another app that does the same thing as the other apps that do the same thing.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could use an open, standard protocol and network so I don't need 5 apps installed to communicate with various circles of friends over different mediums.
After the death of federated im on mobile, this is the closest we get to decentralisation. I'm all for it. The more people are on different platforms, the less any one platform knows about anyone.
Ideally, federation. But bar that, this is better than having everything in one app.
Bonus: this puts the pain in the front, where it should be. If there was ever a chance of getting back to an open protocol, this will be the best way to get there: make the proprietary universe annoying for users.
In todays app world although, it's easier to have 5 messaging apps unlike the desktop days. We all really only have one messaging app in the background, and that is apple / google push servers.
I'd glady give up all these gimmick features, like stickers and so on, to have some proper standardization.
I mean audio messages and gif seem revolutionary to some, but in reality it's just a file being sent from one device to another. And in the end it's these end clients interpreting the data.
If email hadn't had become dominant so early, you'd also have companies trying to split and isolate communication, claiming features but actually only going after profits and monopolising.
> I'd glady give up all these gimmick features, like stickers and so on, to have some proper standardization.
You have that option available to you already. XMPP is here to stay. Unfortunately, network effects being what they are, you may or may not have many people to talk to.
Meanwhile, people continue to flock to
* Slack (deliberately putting this at the top, given the audience)
* Signal
* Whatsapp
* Line
* WeChat
* Facebook Messenger
* Viber
> If email hadn't had become dominant so early, you'd also have companies trying to split and isolate communication, claiming features but actually only going after profits and monopolising.
If you've tried running your own email servers recently, you may have noticed that emails going into the big providers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) doesn't always get there. Despite the open platform and open standard, with the majority of mail flowing through those gate keepers, the barrier to entry has gotten higher than it should.
Unless you're pushing pharmaceuticals or fake designer products. Then that seems to make it through all the time.
I totally agree with you, and just to expand on my point, I belive considering problema like
>Meanwhile, people continue to flock to
>* Slack (deliberately putting this at the top, given the audience)
>* Signal
>* Whatsapp
>* Line
>* WeChat
>* Facebook Messenger
>* Viber
is lacking consciousness for the effects. It is a comfortable illusion to ignore the fact that these are all (or at least predominantly) run by private companies, whose interest is not offering a through and through good service, but rather a profitable. Ostensibly, it might seem good/fast/better but that's by far not everything.
As others have mentioned, it is partly our "social/moral responsibility" (hope this wont provocate anyone) to educate people on the pitfalls and problems we and will be encountering with these services.
And regarding your second point, that also expands to the consciousness of decentralisation/federalisation/distribution. Centralize network is a special kind of distributed network with only one server. But that's not to point of people like me who are trying to promote these kinds of systems. And partially thats also blamable on the people who made the system (but to be fair, there were quite a few, and it wasn't that coordinated).
> Great, another app that does the same thing as the other apps that do the same thing.
Are you serious there? There were billion different apps doing text messaging too before Whatsapp. I don't see any point in dismissing the video chat on the basis that it is not the very first app.
I think the reason, besides the network effect, is that all federated alternatives are lacking in some way. For example, they may be missing one of these features:
I would add "Easy to find your friends," which is the killer feature for me. With FBM, you can just search for someone's name. With many of the federated alternatives, you end up searching for something like "xxBluntlordxxSk8rBoixx" which is really annoying and unprofessional.
All it would take was 2 big messaging companies to let their apps talk to each other and the floodgates would open. I'm hoping Facebook will at least let WhatsApp talk to their own Messenger, seeing as they own both.
SMS seems to have worked fine for the last twenty years, and is cross mobile platform. Yet I'm still pestered to install the latest instant messaging nonsense.
Ideally I wish the world used FaceTime/Messaging, since it integrates so nicely with everything Mac related. Also, BY FAR the best quality, and performance.
What about SIP?
It is an open standard and has support for voice/video/chat.
Actually it is the most used protocol by telecom companies and there are a lot of competing implementations such as mizu: https://www.mizu-voip.com/Software/Softphones.aspx
VoIP companies offers such to their customers and they are both easy to use and with high call quality, most of them with P2P media routing capabilities.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could use an open, standard protocol and network so I don't need 5 apps installed to communicate with various circles of friends over different mediums.