Same thoughts, I guess. This describes the process, and the process (at least for on-device comparison) sounds almost identical to what Matrix does today. I'm not sure what code is going to be compared, Matrix uses emoji which I've found helps a lot, neither article for Apple specifies what they'll use.
But :shrug: unless I'm not seeing a broader picture or there are details here that I don't understand, it does kind of sound like this is going to have the same problems that Matrix has. Although, to be fair, I've run into validation errors and syncing problems with Matrix before that theoretically Apple won't have? So maybe it'll be the same UX, but slightly more stable? Although also to be fair, Matrix doesn't require me to update all of my computers in order to verify an identity and Apple seems to be saying that users will need to do that, so I'm not necessarily taking it as a given that Apple's system system won't have its own share of annoying caveats.
It's a tiny bit disappointing, my takeaway from Matrix is that this all needs to be easier to do, and I was mildly hopeful that there would be some UI takeaways from Apple's implementation.
Or maybe people will just be more tolerant if it's Apple asking them to jump through the hoops instead of an Open Source messenger? If that's the case, and if the UX really is basically the same as Matrix's, maybe some of that tolerance will bleed over to Matrix as well.