[phpisthebest]

There is no technical barriers that can not be overcome to allow the use of XMPP by normal non-technical users. GChat for years was XMPP until google got a market share they desired and choose to take their users off an open protocol in favor of their own one (which they then killed a few years later )

[ghostpepper]

Technical barriers are not usually how non-technical people choose technology - it's usually based on things like UX and how many of their friends already using the service.