hhmx.de

· Föderation EN Di 08.04.2025 20:44:12

@blake @delta
"this breaks the main reason anyone would choose DeltaChat over, say, XMPP+OMEMO."

I think if people use xmpp and delta chat for a while, the reason why they keep on using delta chat is not email compatibility. People should just try out.

(I still keep on using xmpp next to delta chat because I think it can be useful to have more than one open protocol)

Föderation · Di 08.04.2025 21:42:26

@ulfi @delta Whether or how often you use a certain chat app depends on who you can talk to with it. For example, I wouldn't use WhatsApp if I didn't have a friend whose parents won't let them use anything else. And I would use Signal, DeltaChat, or Conversations/XMPP if someone I knew also used that app. (There are actually a couple people I know on Fedi I use Signal with from time to time.)

Now, assuming you and all your friends have both apps, which one you'd use then depends on how comfortable those are to use. For example, if your friends are in a group chat and group chats tend to break on one (cough cough XMPP), you'd pick the other one. If one is slow and drops messages, or is missing some important feature the other one has, such as anonymous¹ messages, chat apps, or formatting, you're going to use the other one. You're right that there is an edge towards DeltaChat on this one, though on occasion XMPP does still win (and Signal sits in the middle).

¹ XMPP MUCs have a semi-anonymous mode where the group's admin can see the members' real JIDs, but other members can't. Maybe you're a woman and you don't want men from your group chat sliding into your DMs. DeltaChat could possibly recreate this using the mailing-list pattern, but standard DeltaChat group chats can't support it.

Föderation EN Di 08.04.2025 22:36:45

@blake @ulfi there are many dynamics why people choose to use X or Y or both. Delta is used increasingly by families, friends, organizers and activists in repressive contexts but it can not convert "the masses". We intentionally stay clear from VC funding even if it could help buy hype and mind share and accelerated developments like it did with matrix. Our approach aims to reliably function in an increasingly fragmenting/splintering Internet, where other solutions fail, now or in the future.