Why are messages separated by transport? That is, why are messages sent to&#x2F;from me via one transport (e.g., SMTP) read and composed in one application, and those sent via another transport (e.g., SMS, Twitter) read and composed in another? Why, as a user, do I give %#@%! what the underlying transport is?<p>I think the focus on a particular technology (SMTP) rather than a service (messaging) is why email clients don&#x27;t advance. Bizarrely, three other transports often are integrated into email clients: NNTP, voicemail, and fax. I can only guess that it&#x27;s because of a completely arbitrary reason: They are older.<p>Probably chat clients should also be integrated. I should be able to send my contacts an instant or time-shifted message.