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I used OTR, but I would not say that it was _more_ common, as that was just a layer over a non E2EE platform like the ones you listed. Using OTR meant using a

I used OTR, but I would not say that it was _more_ common, as that was just a layer over a non E2EE platform like the ones you listed. Using OTR meant using a non-standard client, installing the plugins for it, and configuring it. Worse, all parties you wanted to chat with had to do it as well. Which means it was almost always a novelty feature among nerdy friends and no one else. Because most people did not have it installed, having it auto negotiate always was a non-starter. It meant people who didn't have it would recieve cryptic messages from you at the start of each session and then complain to you. So most of the time it was completely manual process of enabling it for _some_ chats, and this leaks a massive amount of data. It basically declares that for this particular chat sometime might have been interesting. Often the chat log would include a plain text message like "Let's switch to OTR". Unlike you I could not get any non-technical friends to care about OTR enough to install it. I have difficulty even today getting people interested in Signal. I still hear arguments like "I'm not that interesting, they can look" and "I've got nothing to hide"

LinuxBender 4y ago
Because most people did not have it installed In my circle of friends, everyone used a non standard client so they could customize the skin of the client. Most of these people were either not technical or at least just technical enough to follow simple instructions. I personally knew many people that used the multi-protocol chat clients. Their primary interest was for the customization capabilities of the client and having all their messages in one place rather than encryption plugins. The vendor clients did not have a dark mode and were nowhere near as customizable. The E2EE aspect was just a nice to have for some. I suspect this will never be a thing again as vendors might decide to ban accounts that use a client other than their own and people would fear losing their social circles in the vendor locked in services. That is, outside of IRC. One can still use E2EE in IRC.

LinuxBender 4y ago

Because most people did not have it installed In my circle of friends, everyone used a non standard client so they could customize the skin of the client. Most of these people were either not technical or at least just technical enough to follow simple instructions. I personally knew many people that used the multi-protocol chat clients. Their primary interest was for the customization capabilities of the client and having all their messages in one place rather than encryption plugins. The vendor clients did not have a dark mode and were nowhere near as customizable. The E2EE aspect was just a nice to have for some. I suspect this will never be a thing again as vendors might decide to ban accounts that use a client other than their own and people would fear losing their social circles in the vendor locked in services. That is, outside of IRC. One can still use E2EE in IRC.