A proposed approach: mirror messages from different chat apps; users can chat on preferred app; chatops implementators choose they enterprise chat platform

[fititnt]

• Related: Rocket.chat SlackBridge (integraton to mirror slack channels on Rocket.Chat) Configure & Test Rocket.chat SlackBridge (integraton to mirror slack channels on Rocket.Chat) #26

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As I'm still looking for alternatives to make chatops-like approach to empower people outside typical IT field who uses chatops pre-2018, I'm still looking for technical implementations that, even if people do not use enterprise focused chat platforms (Slack, HipChat, ...), we could still make it work. A good result would be ideas that the final product should be something that still easy for implementation of underlying technology still have a good productivity, but the people who work with the intelligent agents still feel comfortable. People, after seeing value, then could migrate to more advanced chat platforms, but even if this happens, this could take some time.

Where is easier to make chatops work: typical enterprise chat platforms,

Slack, HipChat, Rocket.Chat, Mattermost, and other more typical enterprise chat platforms, tend to be easier as one place to centralize all people and bots: these platforms have documentation, have a lot of already made integrations and in some cases could be made work with zero monthly payment.

Where most people are chatting: WhatsApp, Facebook Messager, WeChat, Skype, Telegram

Note: By now, on this topic will only consider text chatting with messenger apps. Video calls, phone calls, and talk in person or anything that passively take information and do actions (like a hardware that convert audio or video from a room to actions) are other ways that intelligent agents could empower people but are out of scope for this working group to be able to deliver functional works at 2018.

Most people already use on day to day messengers like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Skype, Telegram. I'm not familiar with WeChat, but from these platforms, only Telegram have documentation and APIs powerfull to make chatops works if compared to enterprise chat platforms.

We have to consider that people take time to lean and use a new technology. And even if a few ones use a wonderful tool, if they teammates does not use, is less useful. At this working group, is out of scope think why these platforms have more users and why people are scared of enterprise chats (or only use in scenarios where the employers force them to use). The fact is, people will use these platforms. The second fact is, even if the developers of these platforms could add more feautures, we should not expect this.

There are other aspects of why people still prefer WhatsApp over Slack or Rocket.Chat mobile apps. One good example is that WhatsApp mobile app is more optimized for low memory usage and can work even with very bad internet when other programs you can even login. We are working to promote awareness of some of these problems to open source chats that could be solved. One example is #24.

We have to recognize that certain optimizations are not made with users with more limited features in enterprise chats. And this affect user experience to expand for new users.

A proposed approach: mirror messages from different chat apps; users can chat on preferred app; chatops implementators choose they enterprise chat platform

Is technically possible to create an intelligent agent (a bot) who, even if some platforms do not have beautiful integrations for ChatOps promoters. If we consider all time spend training people, or even the delay for small groups outside typical IT companies migrate to a new chat platform, could be easier to just make it work, and later make it work better.

A excellent win-win for this working group, with have a expected duration of only the first semester of 2018, to test and document possible ways to mirror messages a group of users from apps likes WhatSapp to Slack/Rocket.Chat, there the bots make the actions, and then give answers back to WhatsApp.

[fititnt]

Here another good reason, if we consider the world as it is today: beyond some messenger apps that are not not enterprise chats in general requires less mobile phone hardware and also less bandwidth, in some countries they are also cheaper to access, or even free, on some data plans.

The mirroring of messages from some of these WhatsApp/Facebook Messager/WeChat could be beneficial for some small entrepreneurs or promoters of social enterprises.