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Inside Matrix, the protocol that might finally make messaging apps interoperable (techcrunch.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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(just because I sometimes miss them when the post has a text body)

So, I kept seeing the option to list a "Matrix" username in my lemmy profile across various instances, but I had no idea what Matrix actually was. This is from last December so it's not hot off the press, but it was a good read and I wanted to share it in hopes it might help add some context for anyone else like me wondering what it's all about!

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (6 children)

So why is Matrix allowed to survive when XMPP (the original protocol that made messaging apps interoperable) was killed when it started to thrive?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Google. XMPP was getting a lot of traction so Google started to support it in it's chat clients but then after they got people on Google products they slowly stopped making all features XMPP compatible. This caused non Google XMPP clients to have a sub part experience. This pushed people to switch to Google or lose the ability to talk to friends using Google.

This is a tactic referred to by "Embrace, extend, and extinguish"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think it's more that AIM was the only other decent sized player in chat that actually played along with federation. With nobody else playing ball and everyone building their own walled gardens, it didn't make sense for Google to continue to invest.

As someone who has written XMPP code, the protocol is also not pleasant to work with as it's all XML. IIRC, features like presence and read receipts weren't initially part of the protocol. That said, I still think extended an existing popular protocol is better than making a new one.

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