Using messaging protocols (XMPP, Matrix, etc) for federated social media vs. ActivityPub?

From a practical sense, ActivityPub may be the obvious choice as it gives easier interop with the largest federated platforms.

But what else? There are existing platforms built on these protocols, such as movim for xmpp, and another for matrix I forget.

From a technical standpoint, are there any major pros and cons?

19 comments

Email works well and is federated
- Although it's federated nature is kinda dying.
  
  If you're not on one of the major providers good luck getting people to see your email.
  
  I know ☹️
I think XMPP is a nice supplement to ActivityPub instances for more private chat. You can quite easily hook the user database of Mastodon or Lemmy to an XMPP server and have the same user address work for both that way.
- I would even say XMPP would be a better underlying communication protocol under ActivityPub, as it specs many aspects that ActivityPub does not.
  
  XMPP via its pubsub implementation could function similar to ActivityPub, but that part of XMPP is a bit neglected as few apps use it for anything more complex. XMPP's real strength is in real-time communication and I think it's good to stick with that.
Matrix is too hefty. XMPP is stateless sort of. ActivityPub just works.
- XMPP had social media even before ActivityPub existed.
  
  And?
- From my understanding developers often complain about activityPub. Can we really say that it "just works"? Federation and interop issues are common as well.
  
  It works better than anything else.
another for matrix I forget

If you or anybody else reading should remember the project, I'd be interested in hearing more.

Edit: If it's this one you're forgiven for not committing the name to memory...

19 comments