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I feel they missed out massively in not centralising the communications standards. Not sure if this was realistic or the new products were trying to create who

I feel they missed out massively in not centralising the communications standards. Not sure if this was realistic or the new products were trying to create whole new tech that stopped this but when they saw different directions some core standards for interoperability would have helped. So if you had Hangouts and I had Allo we could still chat as least in the most standard was of voice/video/message. Proliferation would have mattered less and the product teams could have focused on UX/ new features/brand separately to their hearts content. It would also help people try platforms cause I I could swap to the latest and greatest but still chat to my contacts Id be more willing to try vs trying to drag people across to a new platform.

gerash 5y ago
Phone lines have this solved. You don't need to be on ATT to call someone on ATT. I don't get what's the deal with the messaging platforms. I hope some regulation forces interoperability.
- danuker 5y ago
  Meanwhile you can move to Matrix; it breaks into quite some walled gardens: https://matrix.org/bridges/ https://matrix.org/bridges/
  - ta1234567890 5y ago
    So interesting, it’s like the old times again. That website gave me a flashback to Trillian in the ICQ/AOL/Messenger days. Wow, just checked and they are still around.
  - Al-Khwarizmi 5y ago
    Interesting, but it seems that in order to make it work, I have to know about various different types of "bridges", "plumbing", and whatnot. So, really, quite different from the simplicity of calling someone on a different phone network. Or at least the descriptions on the website make it seem that way. As someone rather busy that cannot spend a few hours configuring I'm not even going to download it...
    - ptman 5y ago
      It depends on the bridge. Some bridges you might use without being aware. E.g. a public open source room/channel that is bridged between matrix and libera.chat. You just use either IRC or Matrix and interact with other users without caring what protocol they use to access the room.
- rektide 5y ago
  > Phone lines have this solved. Never bring a hardware solution to a software problem. Communications should happen on the internet. Not on switched lines. Hard disagree with the proposal here that phone lines solve interoperability. Have you tried starting a phone company? How fun was that?
filmor 5y ago
They had this and aggressively rolled it back. Google Talk was XMPP-compatible and had federation enabled.
- danuker 5y ago
  And then proceeded to lose market share. And then Google Wave died. And then Google+ died.
MattJ100 5y ago
Relevant documentation on their philosophy: https://developers.google.com/talk/open_communications https://developers.google.com/talk/open_communications Although Talk was one of their longest-running messaging tools, they ultimately pulled back their openness approach, blaming... pretty much everyone else (for not following suit): https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-talk-to-be-shut-down-on-june-26/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-talk-to-... Edited to add: I should note that their public reasoning for ending an era of open communication standards support differs from some internal accounts I have heard. Google Hangouts was launched amid a lot of internal turmoil related to Google+ and their desire to reclaim social.

gerash 5y ago

Phone lines have this solved. You don't need to be on ATT to call someone on ATT. I don't get what's the deal with the messaging platforms. I hope some regulation forces interoperability.

danuker 5y ago
Meanwhile you can move to Matrix; it breaks into quite some walled gardens: https://matrix.org/bridges/ https://matrix.org/bridges/
- ta1234567890 5y ago
  So interesting, it’s like the old times again. That website gave me a flashback to Trillian in the ICQ/AOL/Messenger days. Wow, just checked and they are still around.
- Al-Khwarizmi 5y ago
  Interesting, but it seems that in order to make it work, I have to know about various different types of "bridges", "plumbing", and whatnot. So, really, quite different from the simplicity of calling someone on a different phone network. Or at least the descriptions on the website make it seem that way. As someone rather busy that cannot spend a few hours configuring I'm not even going to download it...
  - ptman 5y ago
    It depends on the bridge. Some bridges you might use without being aware. E.g. a public open source room/channel that is bridged between matrix and libera.chat. You just use either IRC or Matrix and interact with other users without caring what protocol they use to access the room.
rektide 5y ago
> Phone lines have this solved. Never bring a hardware solution to a software problem. Communications should happen on the internet. Not on switched lines. Hard disagree with the proposal here that phone lines solve interoperability. Have you tried starting a phone company? How fun was that?

filmor 5y ago

They had this and aggressively rolled it back. Google Talk was XMPP-compatible and had federation enabled.

danuker 5y ago
And then proceeded to lose market share. And then Google Wave died. And then Google+ died.

MattJ100 5y ago

Relevant documentation on their philosophy: https://developers.google.com/talk/open_communications https://developers.google.com/talk/open_communications Although Talk was one of their longest-running messaging tools, they ultimately pulled back their openness approach, blaming... pretty much everyone else (for not following suit): https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-talk-to-be-shut-down-on-june-26/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-talk-to-... Edited to add: I should note that their public reasoning for ending an era of open communication standards support differs from some internal accounts I have heard. Google Hangouts was launched amid a lot of internal turmoil related to Google+ and their desire to reclaim social.