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A developer bemoaned to me the threat of being legally obligated to make major chat apps interoperate because it would be too much effort and would stifle innov

by bitzun 3y ago

A developer bemoaned to me the threat of being legally obligated to make major chat apps interoperate because it would be too much effort and would stifle innovation, and I found that rather pathetic. If we couldn't figure out how to create protocols that connect these "modern" apps, especially given that they have mostly converged on the same set of basic features, it'd be a pretty strong indictment of the industry. To be clear, I hope it is mandated and if it is I'm sure it'll be achieved easily.

j45 3y ago
The delusion that one app can be the only centre of your life continues to litter our phones with 9 chat apps. Not making protocols interoperable allows the app to attempt to build their own walled garden. Interoperability is a very old problem, and it has been reasonably solved a few times (jabber pre Cisco/xmpp/etc) and most recently technologies like matrix/riot are pretty well positioned. While tools like pidgin exist today, software like trillian of old allowed one interface to log into everything.
JohnFen 3y ago
> and would stifle innovation I am getting increasingly concerned about the number of times aggressively antagonistic things are defended because addressing them would potentially "stifle innovation". Innovation is important, but it's far from the only important thing. We need to stop sacrificing everything on the altar of "innovation".
- geraldhh 3y ago
  we've come a long way in positioning interoperability as a differentiating innovation, thou
- RugnirViking 3y ago
  Not to mention how many things are posed (and believed by policymakers) as stifling innovation when the effect of literally only consolidating markets into as few providers as possible. "Woe is me, this will stifle innovation" cries the megacorp, as their latest merger is blocked. The amount of people that are sympathetic to those cries are alarming.

by bitzun 3y ago

j45 3y ago

The delusion that one app can be the only centre of your life continues to litter our phones with 9 chat apps. Not making protocols interoperable allows the app to attempt to build their own walled garden. Interoperability is a very old problem, and it has been reasonably solved a few times (jabber pre Cisco/xmpp/etc) and most recently technologies like matrix/riot are pretty well positioned. While tools like pidgin exist today, software like trillian of old allowed one interface to log into everything.

JohnFen 3y ago

> and would stifle innovation I am getting increasingly concerned about the number of times aggressively antagonistic things are defended because addressing them would potentially "stifle innovation". Innovation is important, but it's far from the only important thing. We need to stop sacrificing everything on the altar of "innovation".

geraldhh 3y ago
we've come a long way in positioning interoperability as a differentiating innovation, thou
RugnirViking 3y ago
Not to mention how many things are posed (and believed by policymakers) as stifling innovation when the effect of literally only consolidating markets into as few providers as possible. "Woe is me, this will stifle innovation" cries the megacorp, as their latest merger is blocked. The amount of people that are sympathetic to those cries are alarming.