cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/40286422
Is UX/UI and marketing really the reason XMPP lags behind Signal/Matrix/Telegram?
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?
xmpp is closer to IRC than to modern communications protocols. End-to-end encryption, for example, is an optional protocol extension, which hasn’t even been formally finalized yet (and probably won’t ever be, given it’s been 10 years now)