Everyone is saying Signal, but my family uses a Matrix space (mix of phones and PCs in this case) and it works great. It's FOSS, federated. Truly future-proof.
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Asklemmy
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Yeah. Signal is the most polished, but Matrix is the most future-proof.
And that's not to say that matrix lacks polish, Signal is just excellent in this regard.
At this point I feel the Matrix clients I've been keeping on eye on are more polished than Signal. None of my contacts are on Matrix though.
Yeah? Which ones specifically? I like to keep tabs on Matrix - it's really the most open of the secure systems, and if it's clean enough to recommend, all the better.
I recommend Element web (it has a nice PWA), Element X for Android, and the matrix.org homeserver. They're in the middle of a migration to OpenID Connect which should simplify auth for users. You may wanna wait for that.
Thanks!
Clear vote for Matrix.
Easily works with basically every system from iOS, Android, Windows, Linux,Mac and there are Web-Clients as well. And everyone can find their own client of choice.
You can use one of the huge federated instances like matrix.org or set one up yourself.(Which is much easier than setting up an Activity pub instance,btw.)
There are rooms/channels that can be open or semi-open just like in Telegram, and bots are absolutely not problem (Not Like in signal). Registration is not bound to a phone number like it was in signal for a long time (but is no longer) and (unlike still needed in signal) a phone does not need to be used for sign up&transfer between devices works seamlessly.
If you selfhost or use beeper you can even bridge to different services (signal,WhatsApp, telegram) etc. so you only use one app for everything.
I run my own XMPP server. https://joinjabber.org/ has some introductory information Snickket is a all in one service you can host or your can pay them to host https://snikket.org/start/
XMPP servers and clients are a lot lighter weight than matrix, though I think matrix has more fancy features.
They're both self hostable and are federated to share the costs of running the network.
With signal there's a non-profit that needs some pretty steam funding to stay in business. (Though they're popular so maybe they can get it) https://www.pcmag.com/news/want-to-run-an-encrypted-chat-app-youll-need-50-million-signal-says
I've been using Delta Chat for the last few weeks, its very similar to WhatsApp, but decentralised... Works very well, available on android & ios, definitely worth a look, as it could be good for your use case..
Signal was developed with financial backing by the CIA, so do with that information what you will. I use Teleguard which is very similar to Telegram but run out of Switzerland, and with 2-way encryption automatically enabled, unlike signal or telegram.
Not heard that one before about the cia but let's say for a moment that is true - Signal is open source so anyone can audit and work with the source code. Also anyone can set up an independent signal server and network.
And are you maybe confusing Signal with Tor and the CIA with the US Navy?
Yeah, but the response to that first part is "and?"
Open source, they've been audited, and there's no sign of anything hinky.
Also, thanks for the teleguard info. Any opinion about features and function for those of us that haven't run across it before?
I just installed teleguard because of this comment.
It's run by SwissCows, they claim it's fully encrypted with the latest/greatest tech, and comply with GDPR (and since they claim to not store user data, it's pretty simple).
It's simplistic in it's setup (not really a criticism, just a description/observation). This seems to be because (they claim) no data is stored on their servers (messages transit,and are deleted upon delivery).
If you want to use another device simultaneously, you have to backup one device, then restore it to the new device (backup requires a password). They'll then have the same history and will remain in sync, I think. So far I haven't gotten the restore to work because both devices must run the exact same version, and the Windows version isn't up to date.
I haven't found documentation on where the backup is stored, but I suspect the restore process pulls the backup from the first device.
Edit: Sync works, I'm just an idiot. When it says use your ID, they mean the code, not your Nickname. π€¦πΌββοΈ
It seems to work well, did some voice and video calls between phone and laptop, sent files, etc.
Signal was developed with financial backing by the CIA, so do with that information what you will.
source?
https://www.opentech.fund/news/february-2018-monthly-report/
Itβs not a secret. Itβs on their website. Note: the Open Technology Fund is the CIA. Just like Radio Free Asia (or Radio Free X, theyβre all CIA-run appendages of the US state department) which the fund grew out of. The US government very often funds technologies and startups that have the potential surveillance applications (among other things) and Signal was one of them. The people calling this a conspiracy theory have no idea what they are talking about, but thatβs not uncommon when it comes to Americans and swallowing their own propaganda whole.
I just got to know about Delta Chat which sounds fantastic as it basically uses your email but wrapped as chat.
XMPP and Matrix are other good options too, although these require creating an account (Delta Chat can work with your normal email account).
The good thing about these last 2 is that they have calls and all that stuff.
Whatβs missing from the text and photos functionality of text messaging, that you need from this app?
Text messages drop quality of images and videos are terrible. Can't do anything over 10 seconds.