> crap like WhatsApp, Skype, or Discord I agree up until you mention Discord. It works really well across all platforms (including the browser) and provides a

> crap like WhatsApp, Skype, or Discord I agree up until you mention Discord. It works really well across all platforms (including the browser) and provides a very generous suite of features for free, some of which would be difficult to implement without centralization. It also doesn't make money off selling user data; there is no actual evidence this has ever or will ever occur. Back when it was still floating on venture capital funds, it didn't need to make money. When it realized it needed to become profitable, instead of introducing invasive tracking and ads like other chat apps, it took a different approach: introducing the "Nitro" subscription which offers a slightly upgraded Discord experience (animated emoji, extra profile customization, etc) for $9.99/mo while keeping the core features free. It would be more comforting if they published the sales numbers so we could verify that Nitro is profitable, but I have no reason to doubt this approach is successful -- Nitro may not seem valuable to the average HN reader, but many users (including friends of mine) do find a lot of value in the features it offers. By the way, I'm all for decentralized/encrypted chat apps and wish Tox success. It definitely irks me that all my Discord messages are stored on a corporate server outside my control, where Discord employees, the government, or any hacker who manages to break in to either my individual account or Discord's servers can freely read over them. However, I think the approach Discord is taking is different than the one taken by most chat apps and it's probably the best among the proprietary ones.