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Comment by jqpabc123 | Hacker News Reader

If all the people you know only use iOS --- you probably don't know very many people.

OTH, if you know people using both iOS and Android, then a chat app that can only talk to some of your friends is just not very practical.

I see this single platform thing play out over and over again with regard to communication and I just don't get it.

I know the two ecosystems are very different from a development perspective. Don't shoot the messenger but I think supporting both has kinda become the defacto price for entry nowadays into the *communication* market space. Communicating half way is really no communication at all --- for me anyway.

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Thank you for these comments. Won’t shoot the messenger, that is a valid viewpoint.

As one of the makers of Tact, I’ll say that we have mountains of writing on the site on this, which we haven’t really condensed into short bulletproof messaging yet. I’ll say this as a short version:

It’s my opinion or world view that choosing your digital platform these days comes with very long strings attached, privacy and business model being the most relevant ones. I believe in the “Apple way” more than I belive in the “Android way”. (Also add desktop to the mix.)

Tact intends to appeal to the people who share the same world view. I don’t plan to appeal to everyone.

I recognize it’s all just that: an opinion. I don’t claim mine is the only one, or even the right one. I’m not really going to argue or fight about it. I’m glad there’s a lot of choice. I want to provide more choice in the communications space, and provide an option that perhaps some like-minded people have been missing.

OK, appreciate the reply.

Hope you don't mind an observation --- your motivation seems based on ideology as much as if not more so than practicality.

Good luck with the project.

I am curious, Apple's way as in Apple's ideology vs Google's ideology? Is that in terms of privacy or the company as a whole? And if you dont mind sharing what are those ideals on Apple, Google and Desktop, I am assuming that means Microsoft?

At the end of the day, it goes back to a very simple question - what is the basic business model, and how does money move? Who is paying for what, and what are the true incentives?

I believe that Apple’s true incentive is to sell their own devices and services to users and businesses, and let developers like Tact participate in the app economy to possibly get a small piece of that.

Google is an ad company. This is why I am as suspicious of Android as many people here are of Apple. What business is Google in, at the end of the day? Who is the product, and who is the customer?

I mentioned desktop because when we operate in the Apple universe, the devices and software all come from the same place, with the same philosophy, for better or worse. When you use e.g a Windows desktop and an Android device, now you suddenly have two separate universes, philosophies and privacy attitudes to figure out. I think Microsoft is doing a great job. They are not in the business of actively abusing you as ad-driven businesses are but their main focus is enterprise and platforms these days because that’s where the money is.

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