Matrix is going Freemium and WhatsApp is adding ads, which is sparking the annual “time to leave [app]” threads.
Users don’t care that much about privacy, but they do care about enshittification, so XMPP not being built for it shouldn’t be a problem.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard for years that XMPP has solved a lot of the problems that lead more popular apps to fail.
Is it really just a marketing/UX/UI problem?
If XMPP had a killer app with all the features that Signal/Whatsapp/Telegram has, would it have as many users?
If not, why does it keep getting out-adopted by new apps and protocols?
They know SMTP, SMS, MMS, etc. (or at least how to use them). That’s not the problem.
Generally they’ll know them as texting and email, they don’t know the names of the protocols underneath.
No, they don’t.
Go talk to people, they have no idea what you’re talking about.
Non-tech people barely know apps. They use email, or a given messenger. They have no idea the underlying technology - they only think in terms of functionality or use.
SMS/MMS just means “text messaging” to people. They don’t know the difference between that and Apple Messages, because they see both as apps.
Hell,most people don’t even know which SMS app they use on a daily basis - that’s how little they understand the difference between protocol and app (and SMS isn’t even really a protocol).
I’ve been explaining SMS to technical people since 1996, and they often struggled with it.
I’ve been in Enterprise IT since the 90’s, and have friends in the SMB space. In both worlds the user’s are clueless about underlying protocols, and only think in terms of the app itself.
Read more closelier
You need contextual comprehension. They do not need reading comprehension.
The only time a non technically inclined friend said the letters “SMTP” to me, they were asking why their email wasn’t working.
Read more closelier
I would be surprised if most people had desktop email clients. And of those who do, I imagine most of them didn’t even see “SMTP” on the setup screen, or have since forgotten.
Likewise, most people have no idea what the difference is between SMS and MMS, or even why phones will send one type vs the other. Mostly people just complained “my picture won’t send” even during the height of the protocols.
I don’t know how to be more clear about this: all I said was that they know how to use them.
They know how to use them … because they are used by apps that come pre-installed on every device anyone uses.
There is a HUGE difference between circumstantial usage and actual, intended usage.
There is a reason Microsoft got sued to hell for including IE in Windows. Apparently along with Congress and every other law maker, you also do not understand why MS had to offer alternatives to IE, etc.
You may as well be saying, “everyone knows how to use TCP!”
No, they know how to use them because it is basically required just to exist in the modern world.
Using an app that happens to use a protocol is a FAR CRY from undersranding the protocol or what a protocol even is.
My dude do you have amnesia or are you just a troll? I never said anything about understanding the intracacies of the protocol.
I have an elderly relative recently ask me why the email on their phone wasn’t on their computer.
(it was an SMS.)