Thank you I had no idea. Although I was using XMPP before twitter existed!
I still find it to be the "BEST" messaging protocol in terms of flexibility, anonymity, privacy, security, etc...
Yep, but we tried to do it on top of XMPP…. This was back in 2007 and 2008! Ages ago. Honestly a lot of decentralized tech needed to be developed in order for it to work. We were too early.
https://www.slideshare.net/blaine
https://redmonk.com/sogrady/2008/07/30/xmpp_rest/
http://scripting.com/stories/2008/01/21/xmppAsTheBasisForInteropIn.html
Discussion
XMPP is lightweight enough to run on the tiniest device. But supports messages and voice/video calls.
It is annoying with multiple devices on the same XMPP address - logs are split/duplicated between devices, and it is unclear which device will notify you of a new message or call.
I was on twitter through XMPP until they cut off anyone without a twitter account. Facebook was the same thing. They talked a protocol driven game ("like email"), then cut me off.
Matrix is really good at the message store on server - but we're talking 2G+ ram VM for the server and 40g+ disk.
Matrix is way too chatty over the wire for me to call it private, and has a history of being insecure too in some cases.