Is there any actual easy to use foss chat app my friends and SO could use ? Everyone uses fb messenger because its so easy. I cant find anything easy enough to make people switch to, that won’t have issues and send them running back to zucc
If you can’t get people to switch to Signal, you won’t get them to switch to anything else.
Yeah I’m using Whatsapp Business for groups I can’t convince to move (it allows me to have an automated message to say I won’t answer on Whatsapp), Signal for people who could move but won’t pay anything and Threema for almost everyone else including my family.
I wish Signal or Threema would allow a selected opt in interoperability with Whatsapp so that I could really ditch it.
I wish Signal or Threema would allow a selected opt in interoperability with Whatsapp so that I could really ditch it.
Could maybe do something with the signal-matrix and whatsapp-matrix bridges? You could probably skip the matrix entirely but may have to implement it yourself
whatsapp is a modified XMPP, itnmight be possible to make an XMPP client that can also use the whatsapp servers.
Thanks, I know about it but it’s above my technical level and self hosting means having a computer running 24/7 which I don’t want.
I think Signal they (Signal and Threema) missed an opportunity to gain users by allowing an opt-in compatibility with Whatsapp.
Is it Signal and Threema leadership that doesn’t want to implement interoperability with WhatsApp or it’s WhatsApp preventing it? Is there any existing 3rd party app that’s compatible with WhatsApp?
It’s Signal and Threema leadership as they were saying it would compromise their security level and would allow Meta to gather information about their users.
That’s a risk I’d be willing to take as long as it’s opt in. For now I still kind of have Whatsapp Business as kind of read only application for some groups I can’t convince to move to another app…
self hosting means having a computer running 24/7 which I don’t want.
For environmental reasons? I bet there are “green” cloud providers out there. Unless you meant having your computer run 24/7, and then no.
My cloud provider (kDrive by Infomaniak) is « green » but I have to admit I wouldn’t know how to self host on it even if I could.
Signal
second this. afaik signal is the best option right now for most people and the one i use, and also managed to get some friends, family and even coworkers (which was nice of them, even tho i guess it was easier for them to install signal and center our workplace communication there than to get me to reinstall fucking whatsapp) to switch to, alongside my SO.
I would reccomend XMPP(with OMEMO), for android I reccomend the conversations client, but there are a lot of clients: https://xmpp.org/software/?platform=all-platforms I suggest you choose a client that fully supports OMEMO encryption.
SimpleX, best anonymity. Not really what u are asking for in terms of use case. It’s a great messenger app, but still needs some refining in their UX. But I still like to mention it. Probably Signal then.
Love it. Very easy to use and looks great, IMO.
Aye but things like same account use isn’t quite there yet.
As in, you can connect your phone to a pc and use it from there. But then u can’t use it on your phone, while connected with another device… if i remember correctly.
At one point I had a group chat with my phone, home desktop, and work laptop. Whereas whatsapp u just connect once and go.
It’s probaly to secure your privacy and technical stuff under the hood…
It’s a great app nonetheless, so I shall always shill it over Signal lol.
That’s true. And it doesn’t seem like you can connect phone to pc if both are using Tor. I think this is the only downside.
Signal is the most user-friendly option so far, which is also expected, given it’s also one of the oldest one of those.
Simplex is also a good-ish option, but somewhat rough around the edges; the biggest benefit is, one doesn’t need a phone number or e-mail to start chatting.
Matrix is questionable: it’s quite feature-rich, but lacks solid android clients (IMO, fluffychat is among the best so far, yet when I last used it, it didn’t handle stickers/custom emojis all that well, for example); as for the desktop/web clients cinny is a godsend due to allowing importing/exporting encryption keys manually, which just works all the time.
simplex
Element is just one of many clients I find fluffy chat much more user friendly
I have an unfederated XMPP server (running Prosody), family’s using Conversations (Android) & Dino (Linux) with it. We can chat, send images, do voice & video calls. Has been working fine & reliably for the past ~6 years or so. Took about 1.5 minutes for them to get used to the clients.
I’m slowly opening it up for friends too, so friends, neighbours, classmates, etc can chat with us too. It’s going great so far, no complaints.
I’ve managed to screw up every self-hosted service whenever I’ve made an update, edit a config file or just by looking at it. But my Prosody XMPP server? It’s rock solid. That thing never fails, for years and years.
i just wish there was a prosody docker that allows for all the tweaks and addons. snikket was relatively simple to get going, but they don’t provide a lot of info for adjustments
Yeah, setting the server up was a bit of an adventure. But I did that once, and it’s been serving us well since. My users saw none of that.
by “FOSS” you mean compatible with the core values of free/libre software?
This rules out Signal because: 1/ some of its server software is proprietary 2/ they dont allow you to communicate with “their” users if you want to run the server software yourself 3/ the prevented authors of free/libre software in the past to distribute their software (find a fdroid/signal thread) 4/ in practice they channel their users through their centralized servers hosted on AWS
(and that’s without evoking their questionable funding, and long lasting commitment to make all their users identifiable through phone number, 10+y after US generals declared “we kill people based on metadata”…)
Simplex seems to me like the one really ticking all the boxes.
Has an onboarding wizard, includes text, voice and video calling, OMEMO encryption, group chats etc.
But more importantly, what have you tried and why didn’t they work for you?
“Chat app” like texting/whatsapp?
Or “chat app” like Discord/Slack?
For the former, Signal is going to be the one your friends and family will actually use. For the latter there isn’t anything really approaching the same level yet. Matrix/Element is making a good effort but absolutely not there yet, especially on mobile.
Signal is probably your best bet but it’s only mostly open source. Element/Matrix is another good option if open source is your concern.
Signal is super user friendly. All my normie friends use it. Not super in the spirit of foss as it’s not meant to be self hosted—which imo makes the server practically proprietary/source available. (ik people self host it anyway, but it’s not supported and Signal don’t like people self hosting or even making custom clients.) SimpleX is good too but not as polished as Signal.
I’m surprised that no one else has said this one yet: Delta Chat
I’m a paid contributor to Delta Chat, but I don’t feel like I can recommended it until it includes sealed sender and PFS. Signal really changed the game with chat apps. 2.0 looks great, tho! https://delta.chat/en/help#sealedsender
Is this like briar . ?
Revolt looks promising, but is more along the lines of Discord. It is less mature than other previously mentioned alternatives. https://revolt.chat/
While revolt is currently unable to provide all features Discord has, for chatting it is definitely a viable option and I am happy to see how quickly it develops. I am considering moving once it reaches a higher state of maturity (I use discord mainly for voice and screenshare). However, I feel like Matrix + Element is the perfect answer to the question.
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check out https://soatok.blog/2025/01/14/dont-use-session-signal-fork/ and https://soatok.blog/2025/01/20/session-round-2/ . session doesn’t even have PFS(perfect forward secrecy), which can be very useful, so if a key is cracked, then only a few messages can be decrypted. EDIT: that was a lot of typos!
I would also use Signal instead, but Session’s situation is not that bad unless one needs to accommodate the CIA or Mossad as part of their threat model, in which case I think SimpleX would be a better option. This is also in the article you posted:
Edit: I didn’t notice that the original commenter had said they “switched from Signal” at first, which is definitely worse.
Why would simplex be better in that case?
The lack of PFS and 256bit encryption in Session is a little concerning, and one other advantage of SimpleX is that it has no unique identifiers at all while Session uses random IDs and Signal requires a phone number.
I thought signal doesn’t require a phone number anymore ?
It still does, but they did add a username system so you don’t need someone’s phone number to contact them.
Thanks. Yk a secure replacement?
I like XMPP, but there’s also LXMF(a bit more experimental, only for ‘advanced’ users) or simply signal or simplex.
Alright, thanks
