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My opinion/analysis: Element (formerly Riot), Discord, and Slack are all irc successors; Signal, Whatsapp, and Snapchat are sms/mms successors. The difference

My opinion/analysis: Element (formerly Riot), Discord, and Slack are all irc successors; Signal, Whatsapp, and Snapchat are sms/mms successors. The differences used to be desktop vs mobile, primarily [semi]public group/community chats vs primarily private 1:1, and realtime with presence vs async. As technology has advanced, the differences have shrunk. I'd say the last real remaining difference is that the irc successors have named channels with granular permissions and static invite links, while the texting apps might have a group owner but otherwise give everyone full permissions, and people are usually added directly to the group (not invited). In short: the texting replacements are geared towards communication with friends (ie, based on who you're talking to), while the irc replacements are geared towards communication, possibly with strangers, based on what you're talking about.

gadders 6y ago
Obviously more complicated than I thought :-)
ryukafalz 6y ago
To throw another wrench into this: here’s another Matrix client, compatible with the same accounts you’d use in Element, with a UX more like what you’d expect from SMS/WhatsApp/etc: https://dittochat.org/ https://dittochat.org/ When it comes to open protocols, I think it’s a bit silly to say they’re “for” anything in particular; the protocol constrains their uses somewhat, but you can do whatever you want with them. I myself use Matrix for all of the above. (Also, I suspect if you added chat bubbles and invite auto-acceptance to Element you’d have people arguing that of course it’s meant for small group communication! UX seems to shape expectations about these things.)