Imagine a fictional app called Thneed that can track my chats in multiple apps, without implementing any C2S protocols internally.
* When I create a Thneed chat, it opens the address book so I can choose a contact, and if I have more than one for them, choose which address to chat with them on.
* Once I've typed a message in that chat and hit send, Thneed opens the default app on my device for the app associated with that address, and forwards the text of my message to that app
(5/?)
@strypey Coincidentally I'm trying out Spike email right now. It is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Too bad there's no FOSS equivalent that I know of.
@cwdolunt
> trying out Spike email right now
AFAICT this is completely proprietary, and bundling an "AI" chatbot. Not for me, thanks.
> Didn't know about delta chat. I'll have to take a look
I've been using it for a few years. Managed to get a few family and friends to try it, but it didn't stick. Still useful to me though, because I can exchange ordinary email with them using a chat-like interface.
MS/MMS is slated to be replaced with “Rich Communications System” (RCS), a new standard for sending electronic text-based messages between phones.
...
You have to basically be a phone company and pay the GSMA tens of thousands of dollars per year to be a member in order to have the privilege of implementing an RCS based system. That’s not open or democratic at all."
#AdamZLein, 2022
"... phone numbers are recycled. If you were to get a new phone number today, it probably belonged to someone else already. Thusly, you’re going to get all of the text messaging notifications and calls for that person.
#AdamZLein, 2022
(1/?)
"Plus any apps you sign into with a phone number will probably hijack that previous person’s account, too. I was able to easily do that with WhatsApp, Signal, & Telegram since those apps are heavily (and stupidly) dependent on phone numbers. "
@Adam, 2022
Hang on, are you saying you were able to hijack people's Telegram and *Signal* accounts using recently issued SIMs with recycled phone numbers?!
"Instead of simply typing a message to your friend and pressing the send button, you have to spend some cognitive energy trying to remember which messaging app that friend prefers to use, then switch to that app, find the message thread, THEN you can pick up the conversation."
@Adam, 2022
(1/?)
If you want to go back and reference or search for something in some conversation you had with someone, you have to spend more cognitive energy trying to figure out which app and which service that conversation took place in. You’ll be lucky if that app even has a functional search, and you can imagine how much cognitive energy you’ll have to spend looking for it."
#AdamZLein, 2022
(2/?)
The smartest messaging method is not a segregated mess of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, SMS, Slack, Teams, Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, etc.
This sort of (theoretically) avoidable cognitive load is especially taxing for those of us who are neurodivergent, and already experience more load day-to-day than the average neurotypical. Solving the chat app proliferation problem is even more urgent for us.
(3/?)
@strypey They dod not hijack a signal account with just a phone number, recently
Signal uses PIN numbers too.
