I tried Wire first, I really wanted to like it. It lost messages. It got it's crypto state horribly confused and couldn't read messages from one of my contacts. It maxes out at some annoyingly low number of "devices" - which includes things like different browsers, different OSes, private browsing windows opened on someone elses computer, etc. And it generally felt like a poorly built UI.
It really can’t be understated how important good UI+UX are when it comes to driving adoption of an IM app. Security/privacy is great but most people aren’t willing to use an app that’s heavy or has rough edges or is frustrating in any way.
Think of it this way: not everybody can wrap their heads around computer security and privacy on the internet, but almost everyone can tell when an app isn’t pleasant to use or has gaping holes in its feature set.
In short, if any E2EE messenger is going to come to dominate IM, its developers are going to invest just as much time and effort into its UI + UX as they do its encryption — you can’t ignore the former and wonder why the masses aren’t interested.
I too tried Wire and was really hoping it'd be good.
It was just OK instead. I haven't seen lost messages, but I've seen them taking several minutes to go through with both clients online and on the same LAN. The UI was not quite there yet too. Routine basic operations required extra taps, it felt less snappy and responsive than you'd expect it to be. So, yeah, it can be used in a pinch, but it's not yet ready as a drop-in replacement for Telegram.
It does not even have login and password so you cannot log in without using a phone. I don't understand how is that better than Skype. Skype doesn't require you to have a phone number.
Wire has a very complicated UI. My mum can't use it and most of my friends don't really understand it either.
Telegram copied WhatsApp which in turn copied SMS which is very simple and easy to understand.
I tried Wire first, I really wanted to like it. It lost messages. It got it's crypto state horribly confused and couldn't read messages from one of my contacts. It maxes out at some annoyingly low number of "devices" - which includes things like different browsers, different OSes, private browsing windows opened on someone elses computer, etc. And it generally felt like a poorly built UI.