

If by “these applications”, you mean Lemmy and Lemmy-likes such as Piefed, I think “forum” or “message board” is a good classification. Some people might consider that a subcategory of social media, but I think many would argue they’re separate categories.
A decade ago, I thought phone numbers would soon die out. Instead, the most popular messaging apps use them as identifiers and adoption of those in North America is poor.