Hi,
I was thinking about developing a sister chat app for Zanzito (or an additional internal module): it would allow for standard messaging between Zanzito’s devices (users).
It would rely on Zanzito for transport (i.e. it would use your mqtt server).
Pros:
completely private messaging for one’s family, possibly encrypted (if SSL/TLS is enabled), including the possibility to share file attachments;
integration with HA (via MQTT);
Cons:
There are already tons of private messaging apps, including Whatsapp and Telegram (the latter being already integrated in HA).
This is a good idea. however not sure it can be a replacement for Telegram. What I like about Telegram is the bot. With it I can interact with HA. On top of that, Telegram is available on multiple platforms (Android, Windows, Web, etc…). With Zanzito, I cannot use it on my PC.
But then again, who can resist the idea of not relying on third party service for their smart home? With Zanzito, it will continue to work without Internet or when you abandon the project (hopefully not!) as long as the MQTT server is still running.
Since my goal is moving toward a fully independent smart home setup that doesn’t rely on any corporation, I strongly support this initiative.