Sure, you could. How many people do? I don't. I could. But that doesn't solve my problem with Tox.
I use IM apps to keep in touch with people in my social circle. I've been coercing a lot of my close friends to switch to Matrix (I use the word "element" because they're not tech savy and I don't want them to be too off-put), and some of them actually do.
If Tox does not have an app on iOS store, that, as of now, makes it impossible for me to suggest it to approx. 60% of my friends, folks I exchange instant messages with, on a daily basis. Due to this, I'm sure you could see why this limitation makes this platform/service absolutely useless for me.
> If Tox does not have an app on iOS store, that, as of now, makes it impossible for me to suggest it to approx. 60% of my friends
If iOS does not allow 3rd party programs on "their" phones (or GPL'ed software on their "store"), that, as of now, makes it impossible for me to suggest it to 100% of my friends. It's easy to shift the blame on volunteer developers when you have a multi-billion corporation making their lives miserable (see also the background notification issue on iOS).
Also, mostly rich people use iPhones. The rest of us use cheap Android devices or dumb phones... iPhones are non-existent in my social circles, except for the odd second-hand-with-broken-screen iPhone someone got for free.
> iOS does not allow 3rd party programs [ ... ] or GPL'ed software ...
I one hundred percent agree that not allowing GPL software on the store is problematic. I am still torn on whether not allowing 3rd party programs on their store is problematic or not. As a person on HN, of course I would LOVE if they did allow third party stores/downloading application distributables and executing them.
But considering the innovative nature of malware/spyware and the tech-illiteracy of my mother, I can't help but feel if she isn't better off on a platform where applications go through _some_ form of human verification, and a random pop up on some random website would not end in her details being leaked/accounts being hacked/phone being bricked?
> iPhones are non-existent in my social circles
That's a fair point. Developing one less app would make the turn around time for the rest of the stuff faster for the supported platforms. At some point of time though, the folks behind Tox would need to min-max this out for optimal availability and usability.
from a certain pragmatic sense, I agree with you. a messenger app that wants wide adoption needs to have clients for the devices the userbase uses. adding device switching costs on top of app switching costs is not something i'm after.
granted my goal is simply to have just a bit more privacy than the plaintext bulk scanning that messenger does, so i use centralized signal rather than something 'purer' like running my own matrix. (though i do run my own zulip)
matrix p2p at general availability will be my next move after signal once signal has its next big outage
I use IM apps to keep in touch with people in my social circle. I've been coercing a lot of my close friends to switch to Matrix (I use the word "element" because they're not tech savy and I don't want them to be too off-put), and some of them actually do.
If Tox does not have an app on iOS store, that, as of now, makes it impossible for me to suggest it to approx. 60% of my friends, folks I exchange instant messages with, on a daily basis. Due to this, I'm sure you could see why this limitation makes this platform/service absolutely useless for me.