Edit: Matrix isn’t going freemium, it’s introducing premium accounts to fund the matrix.org homeserver. Thank you for the corrections in the comments.

Matrix is going freemium Matrix is introducing premium accounts 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?

    • LWD@lemm.ee
      4·
      3 months ago

      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.

      • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        I don’t know how to be more clear about this: all I said was that they know how to use them.

          • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
            11·
            3 months ago

            They know how to use them … because they are used by apps that come pre-installed on every device anyone uses.

            No, they know how to use them because it is basically required just to exist in the modern world.