It doesn't look like Matrix has reached the point where there is any significant network effect. What I'm saying is that they are building a product, and the protocol is just one component of that product.
The key to interoperability is agreeing on standards. XMPP being about creating a proper Internet Standard and not a product is what made me choose XMPP over Matrix (also simplicity).
Not losing messages is pretty key too.
But yeah, given enough marketing you can pull anything off. WhatsApp basically doesn't support multi device to this day and is more popular than either (free) XMPP or Matrix could ever hope to be.
There's a web version but it only works if your phone is connected. So I guess the phone acts as a server then? Does that mean they found it easier to set it up like that than to make xmpp (which WhatsApp is said to be based on) reliable with multiple devices?
That is not true anymore. The latest version of WhatsApp Web can be used without your phone connected. Not sure if it is rolled out globally for everyone yet, as it was fairly recent for me (couple days now).
WhatsApp first penetrated countries where people's primary computing devices are phones, and they maybe don't even own PCs. It's not surprising that it became super popular despite its lack of multi-device support (at least until recently). Wasn't just marketing.
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