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?
The UI is definitely a problem. I’ve never seen a remotely modern-looking XMPP UI.
Well, first of all, these 3 all have vastly different amounts of users.
Secondly no, marketing is still a big deal. WhatsApp is leaning heavily on Meta’s other products for marketing and integration. They’re able to use these to make them convenient to sign up and get messaging. What I don’t get is why Meta doesn’t just unite all 3 under “Messenger”.
Cheogram, Monocles Chat and Movim have pretty decent UI’s, certainly on-par with Signal’s.
Disagree.
They needed a smaller app for countries that don’t have WiFi, only cell plans.
A lot of countries use only Messenger or WhatsApp, and consolidating them would change the name and be a brand risk.