Saying goodbye to KaiOS and to chooj
If you are following KaiOS and BananaHackers, you probably have noticed that not much is happening. I have written a post about state of KaiOS in 2023. Back then, there was still pinpricks of hope in me. Now it's all gone.
Smart feature phone was a very good idea. And so was KaiOS. But they didn't well play the game. So they lost. I'm not gonna go through the reasons why it failed. However, I sure have technical criticisms from user and developer point of view. I do wish it succeeded. But not all wishes would be granted.
KaiOS is dead in the global market. However, it has still has some presence in the US and some parts of Africa. WhatsApp withdrawing from KaiOS makes the situation even worse for them. It seems they are slowly sinking in the water. Maybe water is already over their head.
If KaiOS had a global presence, a Matrix client like chooj had the potential to make a major influence for KaiOS. As you could use beeper's software to connect to various Messaging platforms all from Matrix. This means you could have WhatsApp, Telegram, and tons of other IMs right in your KaiOS device. It could be a game changer.
I imported a Nokia 2780 Flip. Affe Null made contributions to make it hackable. But my main motivation for writing apps for KaiOS, is the fact that it was my daily driver. That I was the first user of the apps. Now without global devices, I don't have a KaiOS phone as a daily driver. So no motivation to write KaiOS apps.
Another problem with newer KaiOS devices is that you can't simply enable debugging on them and sideload apps, to then use them as development devices. That was another major problem for us. However, enthusiasm made us find ways to hack the devices, find hidden codes, root them and finally write apps. Now there is no device to hack, anymore.
I'm afraid when there is no KaiOS, there is also no Matrix client for KaiOS. So I'm archiving the chooj repositories today. And I won't renew the domain any longer. If anyone would like to continue chooj, I would be happy to help them and to tell them about internals of the app. You don't know how much do I hate to let chooj go. I humbly thank people who donated, people who tested and people who encouraged me.
You might be interested in my other “wares”. In that case, here are some links to various places I have presence: