26
Is UX/UI and marketing really the reason XMPP lags behind Signal/Matrix/Telegram?
(discuss.privacyguides.net)
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
26 points (81.0% liked)
Privacy
2851 readers
294 users here now
Welcome! This is a community for all those who are interested in protecting their privacy.
Rules
PS: Don't be a smartass and try to game the system, we'll know if you're breaking the rules when we see it!
- Be civil and no prejudice
- Don't promote big-tech software
- No apathy and defeatism for privacy (i.e. "They already have my data, why bother?")
- No reposting of news that was already posted
- No crypto, blockchain, NFTs
- No Xitter links (if absolutely necessary, use xcancel)
Related communities:
Some of these are only vaguely related, but great communities.
- !opensource@programming.dev
- !selfhosting@slrpnk.net / !selfhosted@lemmy.world
- !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !drm@lemmy.dbzer0.com
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They know SMTP, SMS, MMS, etc. (or at least how to use them). That's not the problem.
E: if you reply to this comment without actually reading it, you're going to be blocked.
No, they don't.
Go talk to people, they have no idea what you're talking about.
Non-tech people barely know apps. They use email, or a given messenger. They have no idea the underlying technology - they only think in terms of functionality or use.
SMS/MMS just means "text messaging" to people. They don't know the difference between that and Apple Messages, because they see both as apps.
Hell,most people don't even know which SMS app they use on a daily basis - that's how little they understand the difference between protocol and app (and SMS isn't even really a protocol).
I've been explaining SMS to technical people since 1996, and they often struggled with it.
I've been in Enterprise IT since the 90's, and have friends in the SMB space. In both worlds the user's are clueless about underlying protocols, and only think in terms of the app itself.
Read more closelier
You need contextual comprehension. They do not need reading comprehension.
The only time a non technically inclined friend said the letters "SMTP" to me, they were asking why their email wasn't working.
Read more closelier
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.
I don't know how to be more clear about this: all I said was that they know how to use them.
They know how to use them ... because they are used by apps that come pre-installed on every device anyone uses.
There is a HUGE difference between circumstantial usage and actual, intended usage.
There is a reason Microsoft got sued to hell for including IE in Windows. Apparently along with Congress and every other law maker, you also do not understand why MS had to offer alternatives to IE, etc.
You may as well be saying, "everyone knows how to use TCP!"
No, they know how to use them because it is basically required just to exist in the modern world.
Using an app that happens to use a protocol is a FAR CRY from undersranding the protocol or what a protocol even is.
My dude do you have amnesia or are you just a troll? I never said anything about understanding the intracacies of the protocol.
How do you propose someone "knows how to use it" without an app that's doing 100% of the actual interaction with the protocol? You are a buffoon if you seriously think USING AN APP is equivalent to "knows how to use [the protocol]".
Generally they'll know them as texting and email, they don't know the names of the protocols underneath.
I have an elderly relative recently ask me why the email on their phone wasn't on their computer.
(it was an SMS.)