Best alternative to WhatsApp?
Best alternative to WhatsApp?
Edit - y'all are awesome! I'm gonna check out all of these - thank you!!
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A family member is moving out of country and convinced the best way to keep in touch is with WhatsApp. I really don't want to install any Meta shit on my phone.
Any recommendation for a FOSS or other alternative from a company that's less of an ethical dumpster fire?
Signal
As is the highest up vote, Signal. However, if you refuse to install WA (you should) and they refuse to install Signal (scold them for being dumb), a backup is to bridge WhatsApp with Matrix and use Element on your phone. Way more complicated than Signal and I still strongly recommend they use Signal.
Yeah but IMHO bridging whatsapp misses the point. We need people to start being aware and choosing conscious ethical pieces of software for the sake of humanity.
Agreed, which is why I phrased it the way I did.
a backup is to bridge WhatsApp with Matrix and use Element on your phone
Any recommendations on where to start learning how to set up a bridge like that?
Does this work with WhatsApp groups chat?
Yes, here's the supported features for the recommended bridge: https://matrix.org/ecosystem/bridges/whatsapp/
Signal
Seconded - it even has a much better way of dealing with media attachments.
Just make sure you configure a PIN and backups.
Signal
Signal. Also see https://www.messenger-matrix.de/messenger-matrix-en.html
For my family member who moved out of country, signal's voice quality was not very good. WhatsApp's quality was better than a regular phone call, very impressive.
Also, outside the US WhatsApp is some kind of standard the way rich Americans think iMessage is. Companies will ask her to contact them on WhatsApp, so she'll have to have it regardless of your personal involvement.
There's also jitsi.
Also, outside the US WhatsApp is some kind of standard the way rich Americans think iMessage is. Companies will ask her to contact them on WhatsApp, so she'll have to have it regardless of your personal involvement.
That really depends on the country that the family member is moving to, and is not an absolute thing world-wide.
Here goes to hoping that EU massages Whatsapp third party compatibility actually works. It would be great if Signal decided to enter the program, so that I could start recommending it to friends and family as a full on replacement, while not losing the ability to communicate with those who use WhatsApp.
I understand Signal stance, but it would honestly be better to have a mainstream alternative to Whatsapp that actually cares about privacy, rather than a niche product nobody uses
Do you think signal's voice quality is not as good as whatsapp? It might be because they have less servers than whatsapp
Whatsapp and telegram calls are P2P for contacts by default. P2P might reduce call issues which i'm not sure signal does that or not
SimpleX Chat, no phone number or e-mail registration needed. Truly a privacy pioneer.
SimpleX Chat
I was curious. I'm even more curious how this thing works without user identifiers.
Edit: The Play listing makes things clearer
Signal or XMPP are good option
XMPP may be a bit overwhelming as you need to select a provider and a client. Doesn't require phone number.
Signal is private and easy to use like whatsapp. Needs phone number to use.
Telegram is cool but encryption isnt enabled by default, would like to avoid it for this. Cool for public groups.
Edit: Teleram isnt good at all, dont use it. Look reason in the replies
Telegram's MTProto has, to my knowledge, never undergone any security audits. It's a roll-your-own-encryption, which is always dubious when you're unwilling to have it audited. I would never suggest Telegram, even for cleartext communications.
Agreed, I will edit the comment
Are telegram's secret chats using MTProto? Also i have seen many claims saying it have been audited. They do public bug hunt contest with huge sum as reward to test this afaik
XMPP. Oh, wait, company based.
- Signal if you want phone number based signups.
- SimpleX Chat if you want to experience full privacy.
- Threema if you want basically the same as SimpleX Chat, but want to give them money first.
But XMPP would be the best option. Snikket is recommended for easy setup.
Signal then SimpleX. SimpleX is really cool and new but you can’t have groups larger than 50 people. It was recently smeared by Wired as being a haven for neo Nazi’s but that’s bullshit unless you want to accuse Monero of being solely for illicit deeds and money laundering.
Also, there’s Matrix which is like a federated Discord and NOSTR which is also being smeared but is a quite promising technology that Jack Dorsey was looking into and Edward Snowden uses.
Written press and the internet as a whole can be a haven for any kind of malicious groups.
Privacy is a paradox in that way.
Signal. Though SimpleX is growing as a superior private messenger.
Signal, Matrix/Element, Wire
Maybe not wire, it's not very widely used and the app is a bit meh
I'd recommend just regular texting, but if for whatever reason you can't/don't want to the. matrix should work, it's basically foss discord.
Why would you recommend texting as an alternative?
Otherwise you don’t get all operators being able to read your messages, all the vulnerabilities of SS7 (so not only your operator, any random dude with experience can read your messages)
So many advantages!
But it is compatible with iMessage that it is what really matters, really 😂