Why we can send emails from gmail to yahoo or outlook but cannot do the same with instant messaging apps like WhatsApp to Messenger or iMessage?
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From the start ,the purpose of the email was to be a simple standard that could be understood by anyone and everyone… The openness was the goal
Private chats of websites are created in house closed from other sites deliberately, to keep you on the site for longer….
Putting aside the implementation differences, there is no reason for them to be enclosed it is arbitrary
There is a protocol which was made to be an open chat form, “Internet Relay Chat” or IRC but it “went out of fashion” for the common folk with the advent of social media
There’s actually very little stopping these messenger apps from technically being able to talk to each other. What you’re running into is branding and money issues, these companies don’t want you to use another chat platform, they want everyone you know to come to theirs. It’s a bit like asking why pepsi and coke don’t just make soda together.
Apple doesn’t like to play with others. Early days apple wanted email to to apple to apple only.
Email is a standard protocol that Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, adheres to.
Messaging is not, but Matrix IS the same thing as mentioned above, and with growing EU support for interoperability for messaging, things are looking great.
Matrix is a protocol (like IMAP, POP3, etc, for email) and Element is a client that parses the data (like Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo for email). There is also Bridges for Matrix to bring FBM, IG DMs, Discord, Twitter DMs, WhatsApp, and lots of others all into your Element app.
Element runs on Browsers, Apple, Android and Desktop. You can host your own Matrix hardware, and keep your data on your territory.
Its also E2EE.
Email is a standard protocol that Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, adheres to.
Messaging is not, but Matrix IS the same thing as mentioned above, and with growing EU support for interoperability for messaging, things are looking great.
Matrix is a protocol (like IMAP, POP3, etc, for email) and Element is a client that parses the data (like Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo for email). There is also Bridges for Matrix to bring FBM, IG DMs, Discord, Twitter DMs, WhatsApp, and lots of others all into your Element app.
Element runs on Browsers, Apple, Android and Desktop. You can host your own Matrix hardware, and keep your data on your territory.
Its also E2EE.
MKBHD had a good explanation of this mismatch, its history, and a potential fix. https://youtu.be/BuaKzm7Kq9Q
Good news, the EU has incorporated this feature into a new digital rights act. Could become reality in the next 5 years
I like to imagine all the instant messengers are hanging out in their rooms talking to themselves, meanwhile the emails are on the roof screaming across the city.
Basically, because email was designed to be multiplatform when it was made. Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook – They’re all email providers. All email uses the same language, or at least easily translatable language to your email provider of choice.
Messenging apps are not quite the same. For one, they don’t all use the same backbone – When email was made, it was general “email.” These providers built themselves around “email” and thus became able to speak the same language. Messaging apps did not – They each started with their provider, and built themselves as the provider needed them to – Thus, the language used to build them is not the same.
This is essentially the same as Windows vs. Mac. Both are computers, but neither run on the same backbone, so they are not compatible. But both use browsers and both access the internet – They built the language into themselves to be capable of reading internet language. They just both have different languages and convert differently.
You can send a letter to another country and it will be received (same system, just different country)
But
You cannot watch a movie listed only on Amazon prime catalogue from Netflix (different systems even if the served media is the same)
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