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Has anyone compared the ActivityPub and Matrix protocols? Why was Matrix/ActivityPub created when the other already existed? What are the respective strengths/w

Has anyone compared the ActivityPub and Matrix protocols? Why was Matrix/ActivityPub created when the other already existed? What are the respective strengths/weaknesses/focuses? In which contexts were they created, to solve which problems?

Matl 4y ago
ActivityPub is very narrowly targeted at Twitter/Facebook/Diaspora type of social app. It doesn't strike me as particularly well suited for real-time or indeed any kind of secure communication. Not to say it cannot be twisted for such a purpose, but it should probably not be.
- neltnerb 4y ago
  My limited experience is similar to yours I think, but I'm not sure how true this is. If ActivityPub works for these, is it doing a bad job? - Nextcloud, a federated service for file hosting - PeerTube, a federated service for video streaming - Pixelfed, a piece of social networking software which resembles Instagram (from wikipedia, surely there are more) Or I suppose maybe those count as social apps because they involve public facing posting. I definitely wouldn't use them for privacy, and only for communication with no particular expectation of promptness.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
woojoo666 4y ago
> Why was Matrix/ActivityPub created when the other already existed? Afaik Matrix started in 2014, Activitypub in 2016. Both were probably pretty small back then, so no reason to adopt the other's protocol when there's no guarantee of stability
Arathorn 4y ago
As others have said, we created Matrix 2 years before AP, targetting generic pubsub+history - but with the initial applications being Slack/Skype/WhatsApp style use cases. In fact, Element/Riot’s internal codename as a reference Matrix client was “Skype Done Right”. As a result, there was a perception that “Matrix is for chat”, even though you can do so much more - eg https://matrix.org/blog/2020/12/18/introducing-cerulean https://matrix.org/blog/2020/12/18/introducing-cerulean is a microblogging system on Matrix, and thirdroom.io is a whole virtual world implementation. As a result, for whatever reason, folks prefer to build domain-specific protocols like ActivityPub or ATProto focusing specifically on public microblogging rather than building on Matrix’s generic primitives. It’s also fair to say that Matrix wasn’t proven when ActivityPub began, and AP builds on many preexisting protocols like ostatus, rss, salmon, etc.

Matl 4y ago

ActivityPub is very narrowly targeted at Twitter/Facebook/Diaspora type of social app. It doesn't strike me as particularly well suited for real-time or indeed any kind of secure communication. Not to say it cannot be twisted for such a purpose, but it should probably not be.

neltnerb 4y ago
My limited experience is similar to yours I think, but I'm not sure how true this is. If ActivityPub works for these, is it doing a bad job? - Nextcloud, a federated service for file hosting - PeerTube, a federated service for video streaming - Pixelfed, a piece of social networking software which resembles Instagram (from wikipedia, surely there are more) Or I suppose maybe those count as social apps because they involve public facing posting. I definitely wouldn't use them for privacy, and only for communication with no particular expectation of promptness.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

woojoo666 4y ago

> Why was Matrix/ActivityPub created when the other already existed? Afaik Matrix started in 2014, Activitypub in 2016. Both were probably pretty small back then, so no reason to adopt the other's protocol when there's no guarantee of stability

Arathorn 4y ago

As others have said, we created Matrix 2 years before AP, targetting generic pubsub+history - but with the initial applications being Slack/Skype/WhatsApp style use cases. In fact, Element/Riot’s internal codename as a reference Matrix client was “Skype Done Right”. As a result, there was a perception that “Matrix is for chat”, even though you can do so much more - eg https://matrix.org/blog/2020/12/18/introducing-cerulean https://matrix.org/blog/2020/12/18/introducing-cerulean is a microblogging system on Matrix, and thirdroom.io is a whole virtual world implementation. As a result, for whatever reason, folks prefer to build domain-specific protocols like ActivityPub or ATProto focusing specifically on public microblogging rather than building on Matrix’s generic primitives. It’s also fair to say that Matrix wasn’t proven when ActivityPub began, and AP builds on many preexisting protocols like ostatus, rss, salmon, etc.