Which is your preferred messaging app? I just want some insights about these two.
You may share other messaging apps too.
Both are options that I’m personally not too fond of, but can nonetheless respect that these probably fit the threat model of some people. Signal is not self hostable, not all that private (still better than whatsapp atleast), and it’s servers are located in the States. Does have some FOSS clients like molly atleast.
Matrix is a bit more complicated in my opinion. While the protocol itself is fine, the history behind it is what makes me not want to use it personally. Namely, it being a project that emerged from Amdocs, an Israeli telecommunications company previously suspected of eavesdropping and spying on people. While open-source and self-hostable, it has a network effect going on where everyone registers on the main instance and self-hosting is apparently incredibly resource intensive. Plus, most instances require you to give an email address.
Personally, I’d recommend looking into GNU Jami and XMPP. XMPP may not have encryption as a built-in component of the protocol in the way that it is with Matrix, it nonetheless exists as an option and there’s plenty of no-email-required instances. XMPP is also less resource intensive to self host should you wish to do that.
Jami doesn’t work with servers but is instead distributed and peer-to-peer along with being libre software. Only knock against this one is that the desktop client is based on electron, which isn’t a problem for me personally but there are people who’re nonetheless opinionated about that.
I don’t know that Matrix is that resource intensive. I run a Matrix server with ~30 users on a Raspberry Pi and a 1TB nvme.
Maybe depends on which server implementation you use, I could be out of date. I heard about Synapse, the “flagship” implementation, being heavier though you of course have the option to use one of the lighter weight implementations. Personally, I don’t self host and I am mostly going on second-hand information that I’ve read from people who do self host.
That’s some great insights. Thanks!
Signal.
So, I host a Matrix Stack and I bridge to Signal (and Discord). It’s the best of both worlds – all my messages funnel through one application.
Seeing as you’re using Lemmy/PieFed, I’m going to guess you’ve got a handle on how federation works. I’d suggest Matrix.
With your bridging to discord, do you have dm capabilities? Able to join servers you don’t control? Because I’m nervous about the idea of getting banned for puppeting since I have multiple big servers I’m in charge of
Matrix for maximum protection
Signal for non-techie family and friends who are not also vendors on the Darknet
XMPP is the standard messaging protocol. I recommend Conversations for android, but of course any worthwhile protocol has multiple independent frontends.
Matrix is so resource hungry compared to XMPP
Whoever voted this down does not know ball
@jksalcedo Delta chat is the best
Seconding DeltaChat
Signal (but actually Molly)
I also prefer Molly as client.
Can you elaborate why ? I’m not sure I see a real difference
For one thing, it still has the option for an additional fingerprint lock to open the app.
Sure, my phone itself is locked anyway, usually.
I still like having the second lock built into the app itself for the odd time (however rare) that I hand my unlocked phone to someone.
I know they’re not snooping into my signal messages while I blink or misclick on a notification or whatever.It may not be a big deal for some/most but I like that feature and I can’t imagine that’s something that needs much upkeep once initially implemented.
I’m sure it’s not the only feature, but it’s one I use often.
Molly has more features and it’s developed by indie devs.
Well it’s a fork of signal so makes sense
Signal. I use it with frs and family. No need for hosting Matrix for now.
Do you want it to be so complicated that no one you know in real life is able to use it for more than two weeks before they make some kind of mistake or change that deletes their entire message history and identity? Matrix
Do you want a slim chance that friends and family might use it, but you have to listen to privacy nutjobs tell you your app is a CIA NSA PsyOp and you might as well cc: potus(at)whitehouse(dot)gov all your messages, it’s run by an american non-profit obviously it can’t be trusted? Signal
Beeper which runs over Matrix (with bridges) has been pretty good and straightforward.
It’s setup like a chat app rather than a slack/discord lookalike so its easier for usual folks to get used to.
Comments are giving single-word answers without explanation…
Cannot answer your question without you giving some context or explaining what you want. Signal is a service ment to be used wigh particular multiplatform application. Matrix is communication protocol having chat as main focus, with multiple services and apps supporting it.
This is how I explained Matrix to my mom: its like an email address, but for chat. You can chat at me, even if we aren’t using the same server, like someone can send an email from Gmail to Hotmail. She got set up and promptly went back to texting me every dang time.
Try Delta Chat, it’s even more like email but for chat (it runs off off Chatmail relays, it’s literally email but for chat).
But more importantly it’s easier to use, I’d have to set my mom up on Matrix but on DC I just sent her the invite link, she downloaded the app and made an acct (and may have had to click the link a second time to get to me but still), it was easy as hell! Then next time we were together I had her open her phone and I set her up with a few extra relays for redundancy. And she actually uses it now! It’s basically a whatsapp clone UI wise so I guess that helped, and at first she’d text me and I’d reply on DC until she started remembering DC exists.
My dad’s a bit better, all I had to say was “it’s encrypted” and he made an acct and hasn’t used SMS with me since lol.
That is where signal once shined before they removed the capability of being default sms app
That’s why they removed it actually, people think being the default SMS app means you’re actually sending encrypted messages now. Nope, it just means you’re sending regular old SMS but with thr Signal app.
That’s an extreme minority though. The only people who use Signal are privacy and security conscious people and the people who those people forced to use signal. For the second group, they couldn’t care less if it’s encrypted or not, for the first group, they will make sure what’s a Signal message and what’s a regular SMS message.
This mythical user that accidentally sends an SMS message when they meant to send a Signal message doesn’t exist.
That user might be in the slim minority but they do exist and I appreciate them taking that into account and taking seriously the security of people who aren’t super technical.
xmpp + omemo. Signal is centralized, matrix leaks tons of metadata to sync between services…
Matrix, Signal’s too centralised and XMPP is good just reserved for important use, not as popular, easy to use or convenient as Matrix.
XMPP
IRC is the best (jk)
