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I use element - though hate using it, bugs me with annoying permissions every-time and it's yet another chat app from user point of view. User's already have to juggle Slack, FB Messenger, WhatsApp, Discord so I'm very sympathetic to users who are resisting/not using it. The world doesn't need 100 chat apps, we need to consolidate all this into one single app, if there something that solves that problem, sign me up :)

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Matrix can solve that problem if you lean more into it. There are a number of applications you can run called “bridges” that can pull all your WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack messages into Matrix rooms and push your replies out as your appropriate user. Then you’ve got all your chat in one place — that’s exactly how I use Matrix today.

Bridges are an usability disaster. Most have been unreliable for many years.

On multiple occasions I ended up talking to maintainers or developers due to bugs.

It's been many years and you can barely use the official bridges for IRC and with many limitations.

I disagree that bridges are a usability disaster - they're Matrix's competitive advantage. I'm using mautrix-whatsapp, mautrix-hangouts and smsmatrix without any issues. Which bridges do you have problems with?

It shouldn't be bugging you with any permissions - what are they?

try the web app and you'll see

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