[fenesiistvan]

We already have open standards for unified communication: H.323 (old), XMPP and SIP.

Also there are a lot of companies using and/or offering great software based on these open protocols: check Asterisk (http://www.asterisk.org/) or Mizutech full stack offer (http://www.mizu-voip.com/).

There is only one problem: When VoIP companies grows, all of them are switching to (at least partially) proprietary protocols.

There is a big hype now around Twilio. However there were apps like that even before solving the same problem. For example mizutech SIP webphone also has a nice javascript API and it is completely SIP compatible (without the need to use any third party obfuscating cloud service like in the case of Twilio. It will just connect directly to any SIP server ...without the cloud hype).

It just seems that technology or open protocols doesn't matter too much. The winner solution was and always will be the solution offered by the company with better marketing.

[icebraining]

We have XMPP, but http://op-co.de/blog/posts/mobile_xmpp_in_2014/

[gcb0]

When my friends tried to convince me i should pay for whatsapp i almost physically attacked one when i finally understood it was an im client.

So, yeah, you're spot on.