Ask HN: What's Next After “Email”

While I have a vested interest in email[0], all the data suggests it is going strong and will continue to do so. Marketers get better ROI on campaigns over email[1]. Email is used by around 90% of people in the US[2]. SMTP is still protocol available to all and helps prevent walled gardens. Email provides a snapshot of a conversation and lends itself towards archival. Any formal business comms are over email, and I don't see Slack et al replacing that. I think informal comms are switching more away from email though, which is a niche that chat does well with.

I don't see a chat program ever replacing email however. Instead, I see deeper integrations. Email, chat, sms, all working together. I think, eventually, all wanted communications will reach the right people over their preferred channels with data retrievable from any of the channels. Hopefully this can be done with open standards.

0: I work with Twilio SendGrid and am a principal engineer on the MTA team

1: https://litmus.com/blog/the-roi-for-email-marketing-the-good...

2: https://www.statista.com/statistics/271501/us-email-usage-re...

Good chat platform. We can call it differently but essence is the same: async communication.

Pretty much everything email has modern chat can have too.

People have been asking this for the last 30 years. What makes you think we’re ready for a next step or that it isn’t already here?

telekinesis