3 ms·

Interoperability between these systems should be a public policy goal. I don't have to buy an AT&T phone anymore to call my friends; not sure why I have to buy

Interoperability between these systems should be a public policy goal. I don't have to buy an AT&T phone anymore to call my friends; not sure why I have to buy iOS to chat with them.

Vinnl 5y ago
Then again, I've kinda given up on email privacy since at least half of my emails go to Google's servers anyway. I'm not sure if we can avoid Facebook having my IP address (or whatever future attack vectors are found after the protocol has been standardised) if I message WhatsApp users from my Signal account.
hnlmorg 5y ago
I agree with you but this is a problem that date backs to the 90s (anyone remember Bitlbee, Trillion, Pidgeon, etc?). Unfortunately incompatibility is seen by businesses a feature rather than a flaw -- despite the annoyances it causes for users.
- sbarre 5y ago
  At one point the US Govt did mandate interoperability on AOL Messenger, once it became the dominant platform. So there is precedent for this, but we live in very different times now.
scbrg 5y ago
Interoperability is tricky when one set of apps has end to end encryption as a requirement, and the other set has absence of end to end encryption as a requirement.
zaik 5y ago
What if we made a Internet Standard for messaging and presence?
- nobody9999 5y ago
  >What if we made a Internet Standard for messaging and presence? That's a wonderful idea. In fact, we've had such a standard since 1999 (protocol codified in 2004[0]) It's called XMPP[1] [0] https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3920.txt https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3920.txt [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP
  - wtetzner 5y ago
    Not only that, but a lot of closed messaging platforms were originally built on XMPP.
- hnlmorg 5y ago
  There's been a few open standards. The problem isn't that standards exist, it's that walled gardens are generally more profitable. In fact Google Talk, Facebook Messenger and Skype were all either based upon, or supported XMPP...and now don't. Slack used to support IRC and not doesn't. There's a term often credited to Microsoft that also applies here: embrace, extend, extinguish.
- javagram 5y ago
  SMS, MMS, and RCS are examples of such standards, although only SMS/MMS have full support on both iphone and android.
dylan604 5y ago
I don't mind the interoperability. Take email for example. Even if you avoid Gmail/Google, so many people do, so Googs eventually gets your email anyway. So we chat, even if you don't use FB, if someone you chat with does, they still get that conversation. So the interoperability provides a buffer or insulator between you and the company you are wanting to avoid.

Interoperability between these systems should be a public policy goal. I don't have to buy an AT&T phone anymore to call my friends; not sure why I have to buy iOS to chat with them.

Vinnl 5y ago

Then again, I've kinda given up on email privacy since at least half of my emails go to Google's servers anyway. I'm not sure if we can avoid Facebook having my IP address (or whatever future attack vectors are found after the protocol has been standardised) if I message WhatsApp users from my Signal account.

hnlmorg 5y ago

I agree with you but this is a problem that date backs to the 90s (anyone remember Bitlbee, Trillion, Pidgeon, etc?). Unfortunately incompatibility is seen by businesses a feature rather than a flaw -- despite the annoyances it causes for users.

sbarre 5y ago
At one point the US Govt did mandate interoperability on AOL Messenger, once it became the dominant platform. So there is precedent for this, but we live in very different times now.

scbrg 5y ago

Interoperability is tricky when one set of apps has end to end encryption as a requirement, and the other set has absence of end to end encryption as a requirement.

zaik 5y ago

What if we made a Internet Standard for messaging and presence?

nobody9999 5y ago
>What if we made a Internet Standard for messaging and presence? That's a wonderful idea. In fact, we've had such a standard since 1999 (protocol codified in 2004[0]) It's called XMPP[1] [0] https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3920.txt https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3920.txt [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP
- wtetzner 5y ago
  Not only that, but a lot of closed messaging platforms were originally built on XMPP.
hnlmorg 5y ago
There's been a few open standards. The problem isn't that standards exist, it's that walled gardens are generally more profitable. In fact Google Talk, Facebook Messenger and Skype were all either based upon, or supported XMPP...and now don't. Slack used to support IRC and not doesn't. There's a term often credited to Microsoft that also applies here: embrace, extend, extinguish.
javagram 5y ago
SMS, MMS, and RCS are examples of such standards, although only SMS/MMS have full support on both iphone and android.

dylan604 5y ago

I don't mind the interoperability. Take email for example. Even if you avoid Gmail/Google, so many people do, so Googs eventually gets your email anyway. So we chat, even if you don't use FB, if someone you chat with does, they still get that conversation. So the interoperability provides a buffer or insulator between you and the company you are wanting to avoid.