Ultimately people are going to want freedom of expression without fear of prying eyes or their “friends” betraying them with leaked chats. Ephemerality will become a major selling point. I don’t want to store anything that’s said longer than it takes me to read it and respond.

A wishlist:

• End-to-End Encrypted
• Auto-Deletion of messages in the chat enforced on all devices with short fuse (15-30 seconds upon read)
• Disabled screenshots
• Usernames and avatars not visible in the chat screen itself, so even if screenshot or picture taken, you can’t prove who was talking
• All chats sent via a private relay so that no IP/location can be linked/traced

Many of these ideas were present in an app called Dust years ago. It was backed by Mark Cuban and I ended up having a conversation with him on the app. Of course, there’s zero proof of that conversation, as designed. He was free to say what he thought about some things because he knew it couldn’t leak and no one could prove anything if it did. It was a great experience.

Commercial and governmental usage will account for the majority of revenue for Starlink in the long run. Every ship, train, plane, work truck, semi, and military unit will have this. Consumers are only the tip of the iceberg.