I was overjoyed to learn everyone at my new job uses Signal... Apparently we can even install the desktop app on our work laptops, but I won't go that far.
From what I recall, it was FB & Google federation of XMPP, and a huge number of various IM bridges that made XMPP usable at the time. I did have my own server, and all the nerd/geek friends I knew (so the vast majority of my friends) did the same. I even set up a servers at $job[-2] for intra-office communication, but still couldn't get decent buy-in.
These days, aside from a few die-hards, I don't personally know anyone using XMPP. I even ended up removing my server a while ago, because it had been years since I even launched a client to connect to it and not chat with anyone...
Being a total n00b, they seem about the same. The kbin instance I'm on seems a little more functional on the desktop, but I've had a better mobile experience with lemmy, solely because I've found actual mobile clients for it.
I seem to have been able to subscribe to kbin feeds on lemmy, if the URLs are any indication (and I honestly don't know enough to know).
Someone should file a bug report, some content accidentally got displayed instead of more ads...
Takes too long for the UPS to run down...
I think 99% of my interactions with Reddit these days are pulling RSS feeds, most of which just get marked as read. I almost never load the actual site anymore.