this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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Is UX/UI and marketing really the reason XMPP lags behind Signal/Matrix/Telegram? (discuss.privacyguides.net)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by underline960@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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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?

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Is it really just a marketing/UX/UI problem?

The UI is definitely a problem. I've never seen a remotely modern-looking XMPP UI.

If XMPP had a killer app with all the features that Signal/Whatsapp/Telegram has, would it have as many users?

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".

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Cheogram, Monocles Chat and Movim have pretty decent UI's, certainly on-par with Signal's.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 2 points 5 days ago

Disagree.

[–] underline960@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

What I don't get is why Meta doesn't just unite all 3 under "Messenger".

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.