Messaging

Meta’s chat app: your Facebook contacts are there, and your chats with Meta AI now feed its ad targeting.

Paid, open-source, end-to-end encrypted messaging that needs no phone number, now under private-equity ownership.

Open-source Matrix client; messages federate across servers you control, end-to-end encryption is on by default, and no single company can revoke access to your conversations.

Still user-respecting by default, but growing reliance on the nonprofit’s roadmap and network effects builds soft lock-in.

Fast clients and huge channels; optional E2EE and a semi-centralized model create a distinct trade-off between freedom and trust in the operator.

Default chat for much of the world; phone-number identity and network effects make leaving socially costly, while Meta monetizes the ecosystem around it.