Flashy UI, channel grouping, custom emoji, server side persistent logs and now the network effect of most likely not having to ask someone to install and learn

Flashy UI, channel grouping, custom emoji, server side persistent logs and now the network effect of most likely not having to ask someone to install and learn the ins and outs of another program. Matrix comes the closest to fitting all the same requirements, but I've only ever managed to get one friend to regularly use it, and even then we only use it between ourselves and not to participate in federated matrix servers.