Alternatives to build (using AP)
My argument is, that we should look at all of the major online services that facilitate social/personal communication, and aim to support their core functionally into AP.
We should aim to build a path for people to develop large scale services that replace the need for proprietary services.
“Time Till Open Source Alternative” (TTOSA) which represents how long a proprietary software lasted without a direct open source alternative. - https://staltz.com/time-till-open-source-alternative.html
Services worth replacing
Instant Messages - Messenger / Whatsapp / Telegram / Snapchat / Signal
What:
These service generally live on your mobile phones, with desktop clients extending communication to your desks.
One on One (Private), Many to Many (group chat), or One to Many (Telegraph Channels)
+ Services like Snapchat are build around instance messages that auto delete after being viewed or after a short period of time. This is an important and unique feature with targets an audiences need for intimacy.
This style service can absolutely be built and scaled over ActivityPub (Handling the State), and using WebRTC style signalling (STUN/TRUN) to connect clients together.
Encryption:
Crypto to enable privacy is missing from the ecosystem as a whole, but it is an expectation for IM.
This allows for encryption material to be held on both the instances and the end devices themselves, and allows for safe scaling of the network.
Why:
Instant messaging is something that is "universal", with every smart phone enabled person likely communicating with one or more of the apps. Trying to build something to complete with WhatsApp is fine on face value, but what does ActivityPub bring to IM?
Interactivity. Expandability. Example: Facebook webchat, is connected to Facebook Messenger, which is connected to Instagram... instead of every single AP service (Mastodon/Pixelfed/etc) having their own DMs.
Moving DMs off Mastodon instance to Dedicated DM instance
People can link their PubChat Identity to those services. This also enables mastodon admins to not store DMs locally for heightened user privacy.
plus this modal allows for voice/video chat, but also games, for example chess or trivia to be played between two or more players on this same network.
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