Blog: Loveposting, good things about Instant Messengers and their protocols.

[Mikaela]

WARNING: This post is in an utopic world where nothing is wrong and is thus a lot less realistic than my rants on computers and technology being the source of everything wrong and evil (including computers being a mistake that have devolved from 1887 typewriters which were still able to type Esperanto letters) 😝 (don't read that too seriously, but believe me in negative things being forbidden, this includes their shortcomings).

Steps:

1. Figure out a list of what apps I use
   • some say that it's easier to ask what apps I don't use and that is true, the only one I remember instantly is FACBOOK Messenger and actually WeChat (not to be confused with much older WeeChat 💜 )
2. Cut the list into two
   • apps/protocols that qualify for the post
   • apps/protocols that I have to leave out e.g.
   • Threema - I have only one contact and I practically never remember to open it without being notified, thus I have difficulties saying good things.
   • Microsoft Teams - no one contacts my individual/consumer self and almost no one knows that there is a consumer version at https://teams.live.com/ as opposed to the enterprise version everyone uses at https://teams.microsoft.com

This idea may or may not be stolen from ergo.chat's #chat, but they don't mind, because love and positivity is good and also good ideas are made to be copied 🏴‍☠️

[Mikaela]

The idea of cutting the list into two is flawed as there are several kind of applications present:

• Those for public communications (IRC, Matrix)
  • This may be a bit controversial section, but this is my blog and my opinions. IRC has no integrated contacts list that would sync between connections, additionally there is no E2EE (OTR doesn't count), while Matrix has MEGOLM without planned integrated contacts list.
• Those for private communications (Signal, WhatsApp by FACEBOOK, GNU Jami?)
  • Phone number requirements make most of these private and I think GNU Jami doesn't have text groupchats)
• Those which can do both (XMPP, Telegram)
  • both have the concepts of contacts, groupchats, XMPP even anonymous groupchats that Telegram makes me appreciate even more for existing.
• Apps that I have, but are not in constant usage and thus I cannot say so much about. (Threema, Microsoft Teams...)

Maybe those can be the top categories, under which there will be:

• which protocols I favor by reading actively and having my own discussions on them
• which protocols I just check at times or actually type into
• which protocols I just receive messages on and seldom send new messages on

Additionally as this attempts to say positive things, I will assume recent fully-featured servers/clients as defined by e.g. XMPP Mobile Compliance Suite.

[Mikaela]

So there is a reason why I have been scared of going through my phone for what are communication apps, and the list is here

What communication apps my iPhone recognises

• Amikumu

• (Hangouts?) Chat

• is Converse an chat application or what? ConverseJS would be XMPP web app.

• Discord

• I have no idea what is Echofon either?

• Element

• Element P2P

• Facetime

• FluffyChat

• Gitter (disqualified, does the separate app even exist, I think it's integrated into Matrix?)

• Glowing Bear

• Google Duo

• Hangouts

• IRCCloud

• Jami

• Jitsi Meet

• Keybase

• Mattermost (that is a difficult one, due to being tied only to a one server at a time)

• Mattermost beta (the same applies, while it can be tied to a different server and I would have probably 10 servers to be on?)

• (Google?) Meet

• Mega (does have a chat functonality alongside friends?)

• Monal

• Mumble

• Mumblefy

• Nextcloud Talk

• Palaver

• Rocket.Chat

• Session

• Signal

• Siskin

• Skype

• Slack (I have the app? But I am not a member of any workspaces and want to be employed to someone using it to actually use it?)

• Steam

• Teams

• Telegram

• Threema

• Twitch (I am going to lump it under IRC, sorry IRC)

• Viber

• WhatsApp

• Zoom

• ---

Conclusion: as worth-loving as all these apps are in their own unique way, I cannot praise all of them, when I don't even know some of them are communication apps and this is just too much, so I have to prioritize a bit!

[Mikaela]

Bridges! They need credit where it's due:

• matterbridge - serves my channels, looks pretty at Discord (which is not my channel though)
  • (Discord developer, if for some reason you happen to read this issue, could we get self-destructing messages like at Telegram with the month timer?)
• matrix-appservice-irc - it can do 1:1 puppeting/ghosting on both sides! They can private message each other!
  • and as this blog post assumes ideal world where everyone has integrated bouncer in their IRCd, there is no join/quit flooding upon bridge restarts which annoys IRC users, also for those who don't have it enabled or aren't registered, everyone implements batches.
• matrix-bifrost - it can do the same as matrix-appservice-irc, but for XMPP!

However I still cannot throw Matrix and XMPP into the same category as

• Matrix wants to challenge Discord and Slack, maybe a side of IRC, being so much of a public group/team communication tool/platform without implementing real contact lists (which would probably then take ages to get implemented by every client if they even demand clients to implement that)
• XMPP just is there, it gives you the extensions from which you can build whatever you want, preferably following the recipes (compliance suites) to get just what you need, there is no single propietary actor behind it trying to challenge anyone to my knowledge. Funnily in case of the bridge XMPP user can add a Matrix user as a contact, while the reverse doesn't exist.