Signal – an ethical replacement for WhatsApp
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Anyone know why the Signal app isn't available on F-Droid? Isn't it supposed to be open source?
Molly is in f-droid, though it's technically third party. Looks identical though.
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Signal is based in America but it's a non profit organization, not a company. Important difference
But being based in the United States it is still subject to American laws, and that comes with the risk of potential American spying and embargoes. Software from any American entity (be it coorporation or non-profit) comes with that risk.
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no we are all on different platforms. half are on android and half are on apple which is irritating. so sadly the sms is our best tool to hit everyone at the same time with any urgency.
sms is not even an option for us; international texting costs a lot. Some people don't even use a phone, they rely on internet connected devices only. Trying to coordinate all of this gets complicated fast.
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sms is not even an option for us; international texting costs a lot. Some people don't even use a phone, they rely on internet connected devices only. Trying to coordinate all of this gets complicated fast.
weirdly my first thought just now was "wouldn't it be cool if we could federate this somehow". have a single (or a handful) of secure communication protocol(s) so that users could just choose the app with the UI they liked best and be done with it.
...then I realized I just essentially invented matrix and that already exists. lol. but yeah the issue is getting everyone to the same place.
its impossible to get some people to move from a platform they've used for over a decade in most cases.
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Not sure if you're actually sincere or are sarcastically making fun of Tox's onboarding. That's a long key.
Thank you for telling me. I am being sincere: https://h0p3.nekoweb.org/#Contact h0p3
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Well yeah we could also use Briar or whatever... but would your grandma?
i've only managed to get some of my fam to move over to signal. the other half full on refused
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Well, just an anecdote:
I simply deleted my WhatsApp and moved to signal. Just did it.
People installed the app, at least the ones that cared about staying in touch. Which was most everyone I cared about staying in touch with. A few of my friend groups also moved the group chat to signal, though all of them do have other ones with the people who didn’t care enough to move too, but I hear it isn’t that big a deal, they had multiple groups before and will have in future, doesn’t really feel like any extra hassle they say.
It’s been fine. No problems. I’ve had more trouble trying to explain to my extended family why I’m no longer posting on instagram. Those I never had in WhatsApp either back in the day, so they “stayed in touch” by watching my pictures I suppose. But I just consistently tell people they can reach me always via signal or plain old sms.
I guess the biggest thing to be scared about would be fomo for most, but I don’t really care enough, I’ve got so much going on already that it’s more of a blessing that I don’t have to be involved in every conversation or meme sharing or whatever.
It really gets so easy after simply switching. Just do it and that’s that. The people worth anything come with you, it’s just another app and another group chat or personal chat. Most already have discord and the meta messenger whatever its name is these days anyway. I know zero people with only one messenger/chat app and unsplintered groups across them. It’s not a big chore, and if it is, there’s always sms.
I guess the biggest thing to be scared about would be fomo for most
I don't mind missing out on some things, but I would mind missing out on literally all of the things. Everyone is on WhatsApp and trying to convince people to switch to a different app when, from their perspective, their current app has over 99% uptime, their kids, their family, their extended family, their friends, all are on WhatsApp. Its the same for me, its everyone. Its just a different situation in Europe.
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Just ditch WhatsApp. Don't give in to social pressure to install malware on your phone
There's nobody on Signal, that's the problem. If I want to miss out on all of my group conversations, work conversations, messages between myself and others, then yeah, I can switch. But if I want to receive any messages at all, I have to keep WhatsApp installed.
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WhatsApp is pretty much the first app anyone installs on their phone
Is this really the case?
Maybe it's a regional thing. I'm in the northeast US, and nearly everyone I know uses Facebook Messenger as their main form of communication, even people who don't touch Facebook at all. I hate Messenger for the same reasons that people hate WhatsApp, but I still have to use it because my entire social circle does. If I want to message someone outside Messenger without giving my phone number out, I use my Google Voice number.
I've only ever used WhatsApp to talk to work contacts overseas, and I've only ever used Signal to talk to paranoid drug dealers, which is a use case that's mostly been replaced by Telegram now.
In my region in Europe, it really is. EVERYONE uses WhatsApp. I'm not sure the last time I saw someone use SMS, its all WhatsApp. iOS, Android, its all there.
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Outside of North America, most other countries' use WhatsApp as a choice for personal and business uses is WhatsApp. Rest are mostly dominated by Facebook messenger. Excluding China which has WeChat domestically.
How Meta was ever allowed to buy WhatsApp without triggering anti-trust laws is beyond me.
Many of my European and South American friends are having a hard time because that's where all their families and friends back home are, and it's hard to get them to use something new, especially the older folks.
How Meta was ever allowed to buy WhatsApp without triggering anti-trust laws is beyond me
It was still called Facebook when they bought it.
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I got tired of asking my family to download yet another app. Went iPhone at this point.
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Anyone know why the Signal app isn't available on F-Droid? Isn't it supposed to be open source?
I think it's by request. the fdroid team build every single app in their repos which means that they are not always fully up to date, so signal argues that whenever they need to push a security release people on froid would take forever to update.
I think I've had this issue with simplex. I've had to wait over 2 weeks for an update. That's why I'm using obtanium for it instead
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That's their problem. If their messages aren't encrypted, it isn't like you won't be aware of it. Request that they use a modern client and get with the times. None of this is an actual problem without easy solutions.
Then let us know when they are solved. Until then, I have a lot more hope in matrix than XMPP. They at least seems to be making progress in the right direction, although they are not there yet either.
Signal remains the best option for now.
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Compare with Zangi Private Messenger. Yes, every country who has jurisdiction has access. Just ask yourself, which gov do I trust more with my private chats?
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That's a risk, and a reason I'd like to see something federated succeed in this space. Unfortunately neither Matrix nor XMPP has managed to achieve quite the level of UX necessary for mainstream adoption, nor have the average person's tech skills and comfort level improved.
Signal's status as a well-funded nonprofit gives me hope that the current situation is reasonably stable.
Several XMPP clients look perfectly fine
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Several XMPP clients look perfectly fine
I'm sure there are several I would consider fine for me.
I'm skeptical that they can be fine for someone who doesn't know what federation means, isn't especially upset that a handful of megacorporations control most human communication, and already finds the fact that I'm asking them to use anything different from what they're used to annoying. XMPP has more things for the end user to think about than Signal does even if a client is very polished.
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I got tired of asking my family to download yet another app. Went iPhone at this point.
How many apps did you ask them to download?
Personally, I only asked for this one, and everyone who is of importance to me chose to do it.
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Don't ask me for a phone number and I'll use it.
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I will use the opportunity to remind that Signal is operated by a non-profit in the jurisdiction called "the US". This could have implications.
A somewhat more anarchist option might be TOX. There is no single client, TOX is a protocol, you can choose from half a dozen clients. I personally use qTox.
Upside: no phone number required. No questions asked.
Downside: no servers to store and forward messages. You can talk if both parties are online.
Phone number is required for registration, after that you can move to a username. So you're being tracked.
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My wishlist is an app which is not linked to a phone number, is multi platform and has a web app. It should be none US and open source. That isn’t too many requirements and yet nothing seems to full fit the bill? Anyway good luck trying to get school parent’s groups to use something other than WhatsApp.
Matrix and Element. Run your own server if you want or use a server that's not in the US.
