> XMPP does not directly solve the problems the authors of those chat apps deal with
Could you please recap which problems exactly? I though the problems which matter nowadays is independence from vendors, and, after that, reuse of existing software.
> Doing things properly requires writing XEPs and just a lot of hassle which a company building its own little Slack killer doesn't want to invest in
So they don't. But I think it's obvious that the point of current discussion is that owned networks are no more satisfactory because of lack of openness and freedom. XEPs and IETF RFCs are exactly for this purpose, so they are necessary.
> If you want to fix this, you have to do that work for them.
For whom "them"? Vendors of yet another IM service? I don't need any of them.
> You have to make XMPP a direct solution that says "Spin up this server, write a cool UI, and your product is done".
It is pretty much so nowadays. You would be surprised how many commercial messaging systems run XMPP software internally, and how much building up the solution is close to what you've said.
battery life / fast reconnection (aka, the mobile problem)
push notifications
"message was only sent to my other client and I didn't see it" (dunno if this is solved now, was a problem when I last used XMPP in anger)
scrollback / history search
editable messages
embeddable rich content
reliable interop (aka: my mental model of how a message I create will appear to my viewers doesn't need me to understand 100 different clients and their quirks)
Message Archive Mgmt, server-stored chat history (this + carbons gives you chat sync on par with skype).
> history search
Client app matters. I don't see this function in Conversations (Android), but it is in Gajim and Mcabber, to mention few.
> editable messages
Sure, XEP-0308. E.g. Gajim enables you to do that. Ctrl+UpArrow and you are editing it, then your conversation/groupchat peers see it edited.
> embeddable rich content
Images and markup? Sure. Don't know about GIFs, well, maybe that's why Slack took off - better support for GIFs.
> reliable interop
I think this is not quite fair complaint towards software ecosystem which is currently mostly not supported financially.
Indeed, this is quite the problem keeping XMPP and mere mortals apart, but XMPP is closer to reliable interop than yet-another-new-slack-killer-company or NIH-driven-community-project. Keep in mind huge variety of existing software and amount of problems resolved. Let's stand on shoulders of giants, not on the mere ground.
> my mental model of how a message I create will appear to my viewers doesn't need me to understand 100 different clients and their quirks
Not an XMPP problem. In open world, you are safe to assume variety, not sameness.
I love my scriptable terminal-based chat client, are you going to deny me in having one?
I want a text-to-speech generator to read your messages to me, and free protocol enables me to do that, is your mental model of your message disrupted?
I want to have your message translated by some engine and presented in different language, is your mental model of your message disrupted?
Or, I am blind and I use Braille terminals, are you going to deny me in using it?
Could you please recap which problems exactly? I though the problems which matter nowadays is independence from vendors, and, after that, reuse of existing software.
> Doing things properly requires writing XEPs and just a lot of hassle which a company building its own little Slack killer doesn't want to invest in
So they don't. But I think it's obvious that the point of current discussion is that owned networks are no more satisfactory because of lack of openness and freedom. XEPs and IETF RFCs are exactly for this purpose, so they are necessary.
> If you want to fix this, you have to do that work for them.
For whom "them"? Vendors of yet another IM service? I don't need any of them.
> You have to make XMPP a direct solution that says "Spin up this server, write a cool UI, and your product is done".
It is pretty much so nowadays. You would be surprised how many commercial messaging systems run XMPP software internally, and how much building up the solution is close to what you've said.