Email is outdated. I hate that it's required for anything, no one uses it for anything other than a high speed fax machine for boring business communique
I was joking, but I'm curious what product you think could replace email? It's popular because it's instant (as opposed to phone, fax, email), and most importantly because it's decentralised. There is no one company in control, anyone can run a server on any software so long as it speaks the open standards.
I'm sure there is something that could replace it, but what's your suggestion?
Email have very much not been replaced. Messengers fit a specific niche. I personally send dozens of emails a day, and receive even more. These aren't chat messages, but more elaborate emails that chat messages just don't suit.
I feel the same about SMS auth. Considering many services block voip and Google Voice, it's impossible to use the broad majority of web services without a cellphone.
You mean, other than being the most widespread method of account identification on the internet?
You need to have a method of uniquely identifying (and verifying) accounts and the other widespread method (phone numbers) is extremely privacy invasive because it's much harde or practically impossible to change phone number for most people.