This thread is on my mind again because the latest episode of Libre Lounge covered chat and included a lot of praise for XMPP as a protocol: https://librelounge.org/episodes/episode-18-the-rise-and-fall-of-instant-messengers.html
In that episode, Conversations.im on Android was pointed out to have a good user experience. I’ve been playing around with it using my FSF XMPP account which is a benefit of being a member.
Unfortunately, one’s user experience seems to be highly tied to the particular client and server software features that are enabled. I’ve become accustomed to being able to log in to Slack from various clients and always being able to see recent messages I’ve written, my message history. With my FSF XMPP account, I wasn’t able to see message history from a second client (Adium or Monal on Mac). From asking at http://logs.xmpp.org/xsf/2019-04-30 it sounds I don’t get message history because XEP-0313: MAM (Message Archive Management) support isn’t available on the FSF XMPP server. I’m now playing with an XMPP server at https://dismail.de and it turns out I have to explicitly enable MAM. (I don’t know yet if message history works but I will once I try a second client.) I’m also thinking that encryption (OMEMO) enabled by default from Conversations.im on Android will prevent me from seeing message history from a second client. I’ll find out.
I’m getting a bit in the details of a particular user experience (message history, or lack of it) but again the point is that the user experience seems to be highly dependent on the software being used. This is very different than Slack where it works the same for everyone. But we want open solutions, right? And now we have @guusdk asking if some collaboration can happen. I think it would be great to at least try. Where would visual design and user experience discussions about XMPP clients take place?