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I don't think that's reasonable and it's very unlikely that "chats" are going away. I've been using chat apps since that person was in their mid-to-late 30s. Newsgroups were around a decade before that. The relatives I have in their 90s know how to use Hangouts. Being 60 isn't an excuse in my opinion

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Back about 18y ago there was, er, Trillian (?) and you could have all your chats in one UI at least. If I were in charge chat apps would have to use federation with an open interchange format (RIP XMPP).

I think XMPP and Trillian might still be going but once Facebook, Microsoft and Google stopped playing nicely ...

Oh, man, the good old days of Trillian. Yeah, you could be signed into multiple AIM accounts, MSN, ICQ, maybe others later on. It was a total game changer.

You're probably right. I think I will honestly just get a landline phone with a few different extensions and a tape recorder. 1st extension for closest family, another for friends, another for business and so on. Corded of course. Patiently awaiting the day I see "Launch HN: <Company> (YC 2030) – never have to deal with text messages again"

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