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Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

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Re: Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

#41

Post by nickjj »

albertzeyer wrote: post #19

The EU is planning to require big online messaging services to be interoperable. https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/24/22995431/european-union-d... This would solve it. Then you could simply use a single app. This is a political thing. So, vote for it, talk to the politicians.

Ah, history is mostly repeating itself (minus the need for government intervention ~20 years ago).

We had similar issues in the late 90s / early 2000s with ICQ, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Chat, etc..

Apps like https://www.pidgin.im/ existed to let you check everything within 1 app because all of these apps spoke the same protocol or close enough that things mostly worked.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

#43

Post by albertzeyer »

nickjj wrote: post #41
albertzeyer wrote: post #19

The EU is planning to require big online messaging services to be interoperable. https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/24/22995431/european-union-d... This would solve it. Then you could simply use a single app. This is a political thing. So, vote for it, talk to the politicians.

Ah, history is mostly repeating itself (minus the need for government intervention ~20 years ago). We had similar issues in the late 90s / early 2000s with ICQ, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Chat, etc.. Apps like https://www.pidgin.im/ existed to let you check everything within 1 app because all of these apps spoke the same protocol or close enough that things mostly worked.

This is a bit different though.

It's one thing to allow independent applications to use the protocol and service, like Pidgin and others. And also many services did not like this and repeatedly changed their proprietary custom protocol to make this difficult.

It's another thing to be interoperable between services. Then you could continue to use only one service but still be able to talk to people on other services.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

#44

Post by jeroenhd »

thebiblelover7 wrote: post #2

I personally use Matrix and bridge all my social accounts to there. It works super well, because my friends don't have to switch their app, but I see everyone in just one app. matrix.org/bridges

This is what I do too. Sadly, there's no good call support which prevents me from uninstalling the relevant apps entirely, but all messengers pipe through Matrix now.

I'd much rather see people move to Matrix (or Signal, I suppose) than to keep having to use WhatsApp but that's a pointless fight I will never win.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

#46

Post by dmd »

nicoburns wrote: post #40
dmd wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good for you. I get dozens a day.

Are these first-party messages from the platform, or is it more akin to spam email where they're just letting through spam messages from spammers?

Mostly first party.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

#47

Post by thomas101 »

I faced a similar problem, a whole bunch of sites that all have their own unread items, notifications and so-forth.

I started writing a desktop app, Wavebox (https://wavebox.io) about 6 years ago to help me deal with this. It lets you add all your apps down the side of the window, each one with its own unread badge & notifications. Might be something that's helpful?

Re: Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

#48

Post by nickjj »

albertzeyer wrote: post #43
nickjj wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, history is mostly repeating itself (minus the need for government intervention ~20 years ago). We had similar issues in the late 90s / early 2000s with ICQ, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Chat, etc.. Apps like https://www.pidgin.im/ existed to let you check everything within 1 app because all of these apps spoke the same protocol or close enough that things mostly worked.

This is a bit different though. It's one thing to allow independent applications to use the protocol and service, like Pidgin and others. And also many services did not like this and repeatedly changed their proprietary custom protocol to make this difficult. It's another thing to be interoperable between services. Then you could continue to use only one service but still be able to talk to people on other services.

Yeah that's true, in the Pidgin case you were still signing up for each service independently. Pidgin let you communicate through its app instead of the service provider's app. None of the service providers had data about the others.

I'm not sure how they plan to make things fully interoperable. Wouldn't that mean every chat app would need a complete chat history for every user multiplied by every chat app out there? Or instead they introduce a shared parent company / govt. entity where all chat messages are sent through, stored and pushed to users. Time to bust out the tin foil hats!

Re: Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

#49

Post by sodality2 »

kevincox wrote: post #24
infinityplus1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't Android allow you to select which category of notifications you want to receive? That can be useful here.

The problem is that it is a blacklist not a whitelist. So these apps that spam a lot just create a new category every week. It would be fantastic if you could switch some apps to whitelist mode.

What applications do that?

Re: Ask HN: Tips for Reducing the Number of Inboxes

#50

Post by eddieroger »

jll29 wrote: post #15

Proprietary apps are only installed for exploratory purposes and may or may not be checked quarterly. I'm on email. If you want to be my friend, use open standards. If you want to reach me, use email. No, you can't reach me on Facebook or WhatsApp. If you DM me on Twitter, I will say please email me.

I am sure this works for you, but I think one must realize and be alright with the idea that making it hard to be someone's friend is a good way to make the average person not your friend. Do I wish I could convince all my friends and family to use Matrix over Slack or the like? Of course. But ultimately I prefer the people over the technology, and I'd rather be where they are than be alone in my tower of principles.
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