>but I had somehow gotten the impression XMPP is a dying protocol. Any opinions on that?
Not at all. Have a look at https://snikket.org for example. This let's you set up your own XMPP server that "just works" in a couple of minutes, and then you can hand out invites to your friends and family, so that they can install the Snikket app (Android or iOS) and are automatically registered and in your contacts in a few taps, without them even needing to know what XMPP is.
The server is the well-known Prosody, dockerized, the Android app is a re-skinned Conversations, the iOS client is based on Siskin IM.
And just like that you have a working, private, self-hosted, end-to-end encrypted cross-platform messaging system that also support a/v calls out of the box.
I think we're seeing another big step on the path to the deprecation of ChromeOS.
Back in June this year, they were "embracing portions of the Android stack, like the Android Linux kernel and Android frameworks, as part of the foundation of ChromeOS"[0]. Now they're enabling a Linux VM on Android, which is the inverse of what they did on ChromeOS under the ArcVM moniker, i.e. running Android in a VM[1].
I don’t actually read it this way for what it’s worth. I agree with you that they are unifying in someways for sure but I don’t read it as the death of their desktop OS for even a moment.
