View source for Wikiblog: Away messages, status updates

AIM had this feature where you could set an "away" message. Nowadays none of the social apps have this feature. Essentially I use sms to communicate with people, which is older than AIM and is more of a protocol / gateway than a proper platform. Sometimes the sms-like messages go through imessage, which is spartan in its affordances, in line with the apple philosophy, of "no fun unless it's emoji" (see 3d "memoji" or whatever it's called). Signal is also an option, but it has an even smaller user base than imessage and its security concerns mean it'll never have a conventional user log / email password reset flow.

I also use instagram for messages but I don't like to for a few reasons: it's owned by facebook, it has no security guarantees whatsoever, and it has its own slice of the user market.

Whatsapp is somewhere between instagram and signal, and used by few people in the united states. It actually has a decent interface though and incorporates a few good social features.

Email sort of works socially but my inbox is full of spam and ads and I'm sure just about everybody's is. I only really want to ever be notified if there's a human I know on the other end who wants my attention, or a legitimate emergency of a service ("we're shutting down tomorrow and you need to download your stuff").

I could really use some chart making software. The chart I'm picturing is about what supports what in application identity / messaging

Sources of communication potential

- phone number (sometimes changes, but rarely; people don't want to give it out usually)

- sim card is a physical representation of a phone number - try putting your sim card into somebody else's phone or an old one. I'm interested in researching how this works in some detail.

- email address (basically never changes, but only works as an email and I guess for imessage, but the email-as-imessage-handle is a message)

- domain record (pretty much only technical people have this, but it underpins email)

- username / password combination

- internet access

- services like wikipedia use ip addresses to associate your edits if you're not logged in. Services like vpns proxy your request, so they are an ip address you can also access.

- sometimes services ask for your "real world" identity to prove your identity. These feel questionable; I don't want to send services my passport et cetera. They just don't need to know who I am, unless they're working with law enforcement (likely against my wishes) or selling my data.

- Physical address! This is used as a touchpoint for things like phone number, internet access, even domain record.

- telling people to tell people something. Useful for when your phone is out of battery or your calls haven't been making it through their spam filters. Also possible to circumvent people's blocks but that's not necessarily ethical. Somebody else has to take responsibility for the information, though, and unless you're using cryptography they're going to know what you're telling the other.

- other proprietary app login sessions rely on a username / password to authenticate, but then you get a token. Sometimes developer-oriented services will even let you see said token (once).

- gpg kinda stuff works in theory but few people are using this for day-to-day communications. Signal started to tap into this, but doesn't have an easy way to export its keys. It feels like the walled garden approach, though the protocol is public and the apps are also open source. I have yet to look around the source and figure out how hard it would be to set up a test server / client or create a second-party app (maybe that's what it is when I make the client myself?)

- matchmaking platforms also have a sort of app based messenger, a way to bridge bubbles between people's digital worlds.

- Speaking of digital worlds, meta is trying to make an online vr presence platform and I'm not thrilled. It's actually sort of like platform messaging platforms, like steam or battle.net, in that it has a clear corporate identity and those kinds of clients are used to shove ads at the eyeballs of users. Like you can't turn off update popups. Pretty annoying; the price one pays for continued use of their services.

So in summary, here are the things I have that allow me to communicate with my peers:

Physical authentication factors

# access to locked phone
# sim card
# physical proximity
# access to laptop that I've used before
# access to public computer

Knowledge factors

# knowing somebody's phone number
# knowing somebody's instagram handle
# knowing my "usual" password
# knowing my gpg key's password
# knowing phone pin code

Digital access factors (build on physical and knowledge)

# Access 

Communication examples that should be represented in this system:

I hear my phone ring and I recognize the phone number that is calling.

I write a letter to my grandfather whose address I can ask my mother for.

I see my friend is online on steam and I send him a message.

I download the snapchat app and send a snap to my cousin who is in my Snapchat contacts.

I open up my laptop and open up my email, where I see a message from my mother.

I send a message from my iphone to my 3 siblings, not all of whom have an iphone. It delivers as MMS.

My phone activates silent mode at 2am and a phone call from an unknown number that comes in at 4am causes my phone to light up but I stay asleep. I see a missed call and voicemail in the morning. Upon reading the voicemail, I determine it was a spam call.

Questions:

Say I have lost all my physical devices. How could I contact somebody?