4 ms·

Yea a glorified chat app with video chat, audio chat, screen sharing and screen takeover remotely, file uploading, 3rd party integrations doing multiple things

Yea a glorified chat app with video chat, audio chat, screen sharing and screen takeover remotely, file uploading, 3rd party integrations doing multiple things depending on your team setup, etc. I'd hardly call it a glorified chat app.

saagarjha 9y ago
Messages.app does all of those and uses a tenth of the RAM.
- mantas 9y ago
  There're IRC clients that do half of that (unless IRC got audio and video support at some point) using < 1% of RAM or CPU...
- hatsix 9y ago
  Yeah, but it doesn't run on my PC, or my phone, or in a browser.
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    I don't need it to run in a browser or PC, and it works on my phone since I have an iPhone. You needs may vary, in which case you might just stick to SMS which is cross-platform and lightweight.
- smashingfiasco 9y ago
  Interestingly, Messages.app on macOS actually is a webview (well, the chat log portion of the window).
  - xwvvvvwx 9y ago
    do you have a source?
    - saagarjha 9y ago
      A quick glance at the view hierarchy (Accessibility Inspector.app can do this) shows that the chat view is just a web view.
      - xwvvvvwx 9y ago
        Interesting! Thanks :)
- FanaHOVA 9y ago
  You can control people's screens through Messages? And you can write simple webhooks and bots with a few lines of Ruby? Please send me some links, I'd love to do that.
  - jsjohnst 9y ago
    Screen sharing w/ control: https://support.apple.com/guide/messages/screen-sharing-icht11883 https://support.apple.com/guide/messages/screen-sharing-icht... As to web hooks and bots, if you really think that necessitates having it be a bloated Electron app, I don't know what to say.
    - inferiorhuman 9y ago
      AppleScript is still a thing, right?
      - jsjohnst 9y ago
        Yeah, it is, but I definitely wouldn't call it a webhook / bot alternative. Having used AS with Messages.app before, it definitely isn't very useful for anything but very basic stuff.
criddell 9y ago
I'd be interested to see a study of how many users actually use those features. The company I work for mostly switched from using Skype for chat to Slack and I don't think I've ever done anything with it except send and receive plain text a sentence or two at a time. The only reason we are trying to switch from Skype is for the persistent and searchable history. I say "trying to switch" because about half the company prefers Skype messaging and so now we have to have two clients installed.
- FanaHOVA 9y ago
  My team built a couple bots that help us keep track of issues we are working on, schedule releases, etc. We also do all of our meetings on Slack; when you're on a call it automatically updates your Slack status to reflect so, that way your teammates know you are busy. Whether people use all of Slack's potential or not it's a different discussion, but I'd rather have the ability to do more if I wanted to than having to look for yet another tool to solve a small problem.
  - criddell 9y ago
    Don't get me wrong - I'm 100% in favor of extensibility through plugins and bots. I don't think that means that the default client can't be lean and efficient.
ex3ndr 9y ago
does video always on? This is just WebRTC and it is not using 500mb of RAM while idle. Integrations? They all are constantly keep something in memory? Most of this logic is done on the server and app is just a mirror of a server state.
Spivak 9y ago
> video Chat, audio chat, screen sharing, screen takeover, file uploading. All of these are dormant features. > 3rd party integrations Which are processed on the server. The complaint is that Slack uses an ungodly amount of resources when they're just sitting idle consuming new messages.

saagarjha 9y ago

Messages.app does all of those and uses a tenth of the RAM.

mantas 9y ago
There're IRC clients that do half of that (unless IRC got audio and video support at some point) using < 1% of RAM or CPU...
hatsix 9y ago
Yeah, but it doesn't run on my PC, or my phone, or in a browser.
- saagarjha 9y ago
  I don't need it to run in a browser or PC, and it works on my phone since I have an iPhone. You needs may vary, in which case you might just stick to SMS which is cross-platform and lightweight.
smashingfiasco 9y ago
Interestingly, Messages.app on macOS actually is a webview (well, the chat log portion of the window).
- xwvvvvwx 9y ago
  do you have a source?
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    A quick glance at the view hierarchy (Accessibility Inspector.app can do this) shows that the chat view is just a web view.
    - xwvvvvwx 9y ago
      Interesting! Thanks :)
FanaHOVA 9y ago
You can control people's screens through Messages? And you can write simple webhooks and bots with a few lines of Ruby? Please send me some links, I'd love to do that.
- jsjohnst 9y ago
  Screen sharing w/ control: https://support.apple.com/guide/messages/screen-sharing-icht11883 https://support.apple.com/guide/messages/screen-sharing-icht... As to web hooks and bots, if you really think that necessitates having it be a bloated Electron app, I don't know what to say.
  - inferiorhuman 9y ago
    AppleScript is still a thing, right?
    - jsjohnst 9y ago
      Yeah, it is, but I definitely wouldn't call it a webhook / bot alternative. Having used AS with Messages.app before, it definitely isn't very useful for anything but very basic stuff.

criddell 9y ago

I'd be interested to see a study of how many users actually use those features. The company I work for mostly switched from using Skype for chat to Slack and I don't think I've ever done anything with it except send and receive plain text a sentence or two at a time. The only reason we are trying to switch from Skype is for the persistent and searchable history. I say "trying to switch" because about half the company prefers Skype messaging and so now we have to have two clients installed.

FanaHOVA 9y ago
My team built a couple bots that help us keep track of issues we are working on, schedule releases, etc. We also do all of our meetings on Slack; when you're on a call it automatically updates your Slack status to reflect so, that way your teammates know you are busy. Whether people use all of Slack's potential or not it's a different discussion, but I'd rather have the ability to do more if I wanted to than having to look for yet another tool to solve a small problem.
- criddell 9y ago
  Don't get me wrong - I'm 100% in favor of extensibility through plugins and bots. I don't think that means that the default client can't be lean and efficient.

ex3ndr 9y ago

does video always on? This is just WebRTC and it is not using 500mb of RAM while idle. Integrations? They all are constantly keep something in memory? Most of this logic is done on the server and app is just a mirror of a server state.

Spivak 9y ago

> video Chat, audio chat, screen sharing, screen takeover, file uploading. All of these are dormant features. > 3rd party integrations Which are processed on the server. The complaint is that Slack uses an ungodly amount of resources when they're just sitting idle consuming new messages.