About messaging, we started using PSS (https://swarm-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/dapp_developer/index.html#pss) in our first PoC, that offers real-time messaging capabilities using the Swarm network.

The downside is that it requires running a Swarm node so until adaptive nodes (ethersphere/SWIPs#12) are supported, we're using a Swarm gateway and feeds (https://swarm-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/dapp_developer/index.html#feeds) for asynchronous communication.

Regarding end-user traction there's a classic bootstrapping problem between the constraints of getting users in order to be interesting for developers, and having developers create compelling apps to attract users. Eventually we want to build compelling apps ourselves, but for this we need to build a solid foundation at the platform/SDK level.

One of the difficulties in that regard is moving from proof-of-concept implementations to "future-proof" protocols we need to define, implement and experiment with. This is something we're doing with the wider Swarm community because we hope these protocols can be used not only in Mainframe OS, but generic to decentralised apps using Swarm.