You are not wrong that any new entrant might be introducing yet another standard like the referenced xkcd comic...but I have faith that this protocol will be th

You are not wrong that any new entrant might be introducing yet another standard like the referenced xkcd comic...but I have faith that this protocol will be the one that sticks. Time will tell of course. As far as interacting with closed protocols, yes, matrix most definitely accomodates those scenarios using something called "bridges/"bridging" (via a few methods such as puppeting etc.). You should review the following page for more info (yes, there are lots of bridges though quality differs among them): https://matrix.org/bridges/ https://matrix.org/bridges/