Speaking in terms of privacy, messengers have always had a bad reputation when it comes to data collection and distribution. I had a discussion with a friend who claimed that people will have no control over their data, and that data distribution and collection will be out of our control. I disagreed with him, and let him know that people ultimately have control over what they use. If these corporations try to overstay their welcome, then they'll naturally lean towards a more privacy-oriented option. In your honest opinion, what will the future of messengers look like?

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YoghurtDull1466 t1_j9l48zw wrote on February 22, 2023 at 7:39 PM

Mastodon private servers have entered the chat and been here alone and waiting for a while now

spacewolfcubbs t1_j9mmops wrote on February 23, 2023 at 1:37 AM

Keep in mind that the future doesn’t rule out new messengers taking a large piece of the pie. People are much more aware of their privacy and their data’s worth, so decentralization is something that will definitely go viral in the future. Qamon is one example of how the technology can look once implemented, which is secure messaging with no traces leading back to you, meaning that you no longer have to censor your true thoughts or worry about your information being sold to the highest bidder so that advertisers can shill their products in your face

MagicManTX84 t1_j9l9zo7 wrote on February 22, 2023 at 8:14 PM

Messengers will stay around for a while until their AI can figure out that your AI is filtering out the messages you don’t want to see. Good AI - takes you off the list and politely goes away. Bad AI - tries to do something radical to force you to see their messages. Which wolf wins?

[deleted] t1_j9l45gy wrote on February 22, 2023 at 7:38 PM

[removed]

sergpepper t1_j9l6ypg wrote on February 22, 2023 at 7:55 PM

telegram and whatsapp will die - all non-private messengers will disappear

CandidateNo1172 t1_j9n6cn0 wrote on February 23, 2023 at 4:07 AM

Ultimately people are going to want freedom of expression without fear of prying eyes or their “friends” betraying them with leaked chats. Ephemerality will become a major selling point. I don’t want to store anything that’s said longer than it takes me to read it and respond.

A wishlist:

End-to-End Encrypted
Auto-Deletion of messages in the chat enforced on all devices with short fuse (15-30 seconds upon read)
Disabled screenshots
Usernames and avatars not visible in the chat screen itself, so even if screenshot or picture taken, you can’t prove who was talking
All chats sent via a private relay so that no IP/location can be linked/traced

Many of these ideas were present in an app called Dust years ago. It was backed by Mark Cuban and I ended up having a conversation with him on the app. Of course, there’s zero proof of that conversation, as designed. He was free to say what he thought about some things because he knew it couldn’t leak and no one could prove anything if it did. It was a great experience.

MightyH20 t1_j9nxq99 wrote on February 23, 2023 at 9:18 AM

Probably holograms because it solves a lot of material cost of producing a screen. Also the size and shape of phone are determined by the screen. With a hologram projector a "phone" could be any size or shape.

A hologram projector is also much more energy efficient (no source though) as compared to modern day screens.

Here is an example of Hologram technology applied in Japan.