Yes it is fairly ridiculous. Which is why an open protocol / non-closed environment would help solve this.
Yeah, IRC is from the 80s and is lacking some modern features, but at least it was a fairly unifying chat system in its day. No one company owned it, most people could use it trivially, and there were many different clients out there to suite one's taste.
There's still a market for wrapping a protocol in a nice web app UI and hiding the complexities from the user, which is why this closed chat systems trend is getting frustrating.
Can't different chat services communicate with each other easily, without the need for a bridge?
Yeah, IRC is from the 80s and is lacking some modern features, but at least it was a fairly unifying chat system in its day. No one company owned it, most people could use it trivially, and there were many different clients out there to suite one's taste.
There's still a market for wrapping a protocol in a nice web app UI and hiding the complexities from the user, which is why this closed chat systems trend is getting frustrating.
Can't different chat services communicate with each other easily, without the need for a bridge?