6 ms·

A single IM platform through which everyone can talk to everyone regardless of their IM service, and I mean I wanna be able to send a message to someone's iMess

A single IM platform through which everyone can talk to everyone regardless of their IM service, and I mean I wanna be able to send a message to someone's iMessage from my Battle.net account, and then receive someone's Facebook message on my Slack or something. Obviously IDK how this would be possible, but IM is now broken beyond repair by companies that tried to "fix" it. The list of IM apps on my iPhone keeps growing, I got Slack, Hangouts, Telegram, FB Messenger, iOS Messages, HipChat, and Skype, and whenever I need to search for a message I never know which one to look in, and whenever I need to message someone I never know which channel is the best to use, and it's just a freaking mess. I hate state of IM in 2016, and I hate the parties that were involved in getting it to where it is now.

no_protocol 10y ago
matrix.org is trying to do this, but so far progress seems slow/incomplete so far. No comment on the technical aspects of it, but the idea of my own server where I can run bridges to all these different accounts is pretty appealing. If all these bridges were actually available, I would be on it all the time.
- omnimus 10y ago
  Ive been using it sucessfuly for over a year. Its moving forward quite well i think.
sssilver 10y ago
I guess some of the semantics I've mentioned in my comment were wrong. I don't care about Battle.net, Facebook and Slack. All I want is to open ONE IM app, enter friend's name, send them a message, and receive message from them in the same place. And I don't want to know who's on Facebook and who's on Yahoo Messenger. I don't even wanna see those icons next to people's names or anything. And I want it to have a web client. And amazing search. There goes your billion dollar company.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  If there was a billion dollar company to build on this premise, someone would have. In practice, users don't care about having to install five different messengers and not using their own clients.
  - DdCb7Qlk2lyaw 10y ago
    Do you suggest that all billion dollar companies have been already founded and there's nothing new which can be done? I find such way of thinking harmful.
    - StavrosK 10y ago
      No, I suggest that all billion dollar messaging companies that don't lock their users in have already been founded. I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
asimuvPR 10y ago
A friend recently started working for a company that builds the app pairade. It supposedly does that. Maybe you should check it out. Disclaimer: I have never used it.
Razengan 10y ago
This. It's baffling; we've "solved" email – anyone can have an account with any provider and is able to mail anyone else – why haven't been able to do the same with instant messaging already?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- bbcbasic 10y ago
  Email protocol was by fiat. We don't have that luxury anymore We have the free market. Hooray!
  - bbcbasic 10y ago
    Downvotes?
- antaviana 10y ago
  Because of the spam threat. Controlling identity (for example by knowing for sure the sender's phone number) allows for a huge mitigation of spam.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    What's different about email?
    - antaviana 10y ago
      In email you have sender impersonation. Once blocked, adding a new sender (cell number) is expensive. It is 12 orders of magnitude easier to spam with email than it is to spam with whatsapp.
      - jessriedel 10y ago
        But that's exactly Razengan's and my point. The email spam problem was solved even though email has very little identity verification. So spam can't obviously explain why instant messaging systems are so walled-garden incompatible, but email functions fine.
antaviana 10y ago
I am quite surprised you do not have WhatsApp.
mynameislegion 10y ago
http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/ http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/
- gcb0 10y ago
  if you sum jabber+icq+yahoo+msn+etc.. you get probably 5 users. :(
  - mynameislegion 10y ago
    It also supports anything that pidgin supports, which gives you WhatsApp, Telegram etc.
  - contingencies 10y ago
    IIRC ICQ is still popular in Russia?
vmarsy 10y ago
On my windows phone 7 I was able to seamlessly message my friend via text or Skype or Facebook message, all in the same conversation thread, which was searchable. and when going on his page see his Facebook and twitter updates in one page. From Wikipedia: > Windows Phone 7's messaging system is organized into "threads". This allows a conversation with a person to be held through multiple platforms (such as Windows Live Messenger, Facebook messaging, or SMS within a single thread, dynamically switching between services depending on availability https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone_7#Messaging https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone_7#Messaging
- kkarakk 10y ago
  too bad windows apps required a comprehensive bottom to top knowledge of windows stuff. for example - built an android app while learning java in school. didn't know what everything did but the outcome was the same as promised in the tutorial meanwhile in the windows 7 app tutorials, phrases like "do this as you would do in wcf so & so and it should work" were thrown about leading to an endless nesting doll structure of learning what the definitions meant- that led to 4 weeks of on again off again learning before i made a copy of my android app. the tutorials improved later but i'd given up on windows app development by then, the promised free support for windows app developers never materialised in my country great platform decisions, poor app developer support and shitty ecosystem(still haven't considered developing for the windows 10 appstore because of this reason).
jessriedel 10y ago
Honest question: what's wrong with email? Not in the sense of "you should just email rather than IM and stop complaining". In the sense of "Why doesn't someone build a dead-simple overlay that exploits the email protocol?" I'm thinking a simple tag at the beginning of the subject line that causes it to be auto-archieved in gmail. Is the latency too large?
- cm2187 10y ago
  The fact that the identity of the sender is not verifiable is a pretty major flaw. SMTP is also too often unencrypted. And it is not designed for real time.
- gtirloni 10y ago
  Yes, the latency is too large. When I want really instant messages I've to switch to WhatsApp because Hangouts on my phone takes a minute or two to receive messages (tried all configuration tricks in the book). Just an example where latency with messaging apps is already too high.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    Yea, Hangouts is garbage...
gtirloni 10y ago
All it would take for this is more love from the existing apps from big corporations (Skype, WhatsApp, etc) towards properly supporting mobile, desktop and web clients. They already have all the users, which is really what makes a messaging platform (I won't use a new app if my family/friends/coworkers aren't there even if it has the best clients everywhere). Skype seems to be trying with the new web and Linux clients but it's too little too late. There is still time to revert it through. If they opened their API so anyone could embed a client on a website, it would be massive.
- sssilver 10y ago
  That's not solving the problem in any way though. How do I send a message to a friend's iMessage from Skype?
Freeboots 10y ago
What happens when you send a message? Does it spam to all platforms? Does everyone have to declare a preferred app to receive? Does it check your previous communication with that contact to see which platform has the best response rate? Just asking, it doesnt seem like it would be that difficult. In fact im sure this used to exist when it was just msn, icq etc.
- sssilver 10y ago
  I would imagine that, quite like Email, you have a universally recognizable IM handle that you can use with any service.
junnan 10y ago
Actually, in China, everyone uses WeChat. It is the ONE IM app you described.

no_protocol 10y ago

matrix.org is trying to do this, but so far progress seems slow/incomplete so far. No comment on the technical aspects of it, but the idea of my own server where I can run bridges to all these different accounts is pretty appealing. If all these bridges were actually available, I would be on it all the time.

omnimus 10y ago
Ive been using it sucessfuly for over a year. Its moving forward quite well i think.

sssilver 10y ago

I guess some of the semantics I've mentioned in my comment were wrong. I don't care about Battle.net, Facebook and Slack. All I want is to open ONE IM app, enter friend's name, send them a message, and receive message from them in the same place. And I don't want to know who's on Facebook and who's on Yahoo Messenger. I don't even wanna see those icons next to people's names or anything. And I want it to have a web client. And amazing search. There goes your billion dollar company.

StavrosK 10y ago
If there was a billion dollar company to build on this premise, someone would have. In practice, users don't care about having to install five different messengers and not using their own clients.
- DdCb7Qlk2lyaw 10y ago
  Do you suggest that all billion dollar companies have been already founded and there's nothing new which can be done? I find such way of thinking harmful.
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    No, I suggest that all billion dollar messaging companies that don't lock their users in have already been founded. I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]

asimuvPR 10y ago

A friend recently started working for a company that builds the app pairade. It supposedly does that. Maybe you should check it out. Disclaimer: I have never used it.

Razengan 10y ago

This. It's baffling; we've "solved" email – anyone can have an account with any provider and is able to mail anyone else – why haven't been able to do the same with instant messaging already?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
bbcbasic 10y ago
Email protocol was by fiat. We don't have that luxury anymore We have the free market. Hooray!
- bbcbasic 10y ago
  Downvotes?
antaviana 10y ago
Because of the spam threat. Controlling identity (for example by knowing for sure the sender's phone number) allows for a huge mitigation of spam.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  What's different about email?
  - antaviana 10y ago
    In email you have sender impersonation. Once blocked, adding a new sender (cell number) is expensive. It is 12 orders of magnitude easier to spam with email than it is to spam with whatsapp.
    - jessriedel 10y ago
      But that's exactly Razengan's and my point. The email spam problem was solved even though email has very little identity verification. So spam can't obviously explain why instant messaging systems are so walled-garden incompatible, but email functions fine.

antaviana 10y ago

I am quite surprised you do not have WhatsApp.

mynameislegion 10y ago

http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/ http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/

gcb0 10y ago
if you sum jabber+icq+yahoo+msn+etc.. you get probably 5 users. :(
- mynameislegion 10y ago
  It also supports anything that pidgin supports, which gives you WhatsApp, Telegram etc.
- contingencies 10y ago
  IIRC ICQ is still popular in Russia?

vmarsy 10y ago

On my windows phone 7 I was able to seamlessly message my friend via text or Skype or Facebook message, all in the same conversation thread, which was searchable. and when going on his page see his Facebook and twitter updates in one page. From Wikipedia: > Windows Phone 7's messaging system is organized into "threads". This allows a conversation with a person to be held through multiple platforms (such as Windows Live Messenger, Facebook messaging, or SMS within a single thread, dynamically switching between services depending on availability https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone_7#Messaging https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone_7#Messaging

kkarakk 10y ago
too bad windows apps required a comprehensive bottom to top knowledge of windows stuff. for example - built an android app while learning java in school. didn't know what everything did but the outcome was the same as promised in the tutorial meanwhile in the windows 7 app tutorials, phrases like "do this as you would do in wcf so & so and it should work" were thrown about leading to an endless nesting doll structure of learning what the definitions meant- that led to 4 weeks of on again off again learning before i made a copy of my android app. the tutorials improved later but i'd given up on windows app development by then, the promised free support for windows app developers never materialised in my country great platform decisions, poor app developer support and shitty ecosystem(still haven't considered developing for the windows 10 appstore because of this reason).

jessriedel 10y ago

Honest question: what's wrong with email? Not in the sense of "you should just email rather than IM and stop complaining". In the sense of "Why doesn't someone build a dead-simple overlay that exploits the email protocol?" I'm thinking a simple tag at the beginning of the subject line that causes it to be auto-archieved in gmail. Is the latency too large?

cm2187 10y ago
The fact that the identity of the sender is not verifiable is a pretty major flaw. SMTP is also too often unencrypted. And it is not designed for real time.
gtirloni 10y ago
Yes, the latency is too large. When I want really instant messages I've to switch to WhatsApp because Hangouts on my phone takes a minute or two to receive messages (tried all configuration tricks in the book). Just an example where latency with messaging apps is already too high.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  Yea, Hangouts is garbage...

gtirloni 10y ago

All it would take for this is more love from the existing apps from big corporations (Skype, WhatsApp, etc) towards properly supporting mobile, desktop and web clients. They already have all the users, which is really what makes a messaging platform (I won't use a new app if my family/friends/coworkers aren't there even if it has the best clients everywhere). Skype seems to be trying with the new web and Linux clients but it's too little too late. There is still time to revert it through. If they opened their API so anyone could embed a client on a website, it would be massive.

sssilver 10y ago
That's not solving the problem in any way though. How do I send a message to a friend's iMessage from Skype?

Freeboots 10y ago

What happens when you send a message? Does it spam to all platforms? Does everyone have to declare a preferred app to receive? Does it check your previous communication with that contact to see which platform has the best response rate? Just asking, it doesnt seem like it would be that difficult. In fact im sure this used to exist when it was just msn, icq etc.

sssilver 10y ago
I would imagine that, quite like Email, you have a universally recognizable IM handle that you can use with any service.

junnan 10y ago

Actually, in China, everyone uses WeChat. It is the ONE IM app you described.