In light of what’s happened to Durov and possibly seeing Telegram compromised, I’m doubling my efforts to find a new main messenger. Before you start, not Signal as it’s a bad fit for the needs of me, my family and friends.
So what do I need?
- The ability to run on multiple devices. Me, my family and friends all have multiple Android devices.
- The ability to run on desktop. Linux and Windows.
- Built in sticker repository. What can I say, I like to lazy flirt.
- Animated Emoji. I like my messenger experience vibrant.
- Material You. Again with the vibrancy, but also, it’s a sign of modernity.
- Phone number linking. My family and friends are lazy as hell.
- Synchronized chats. I don’t mind self hosting a bridge, but the ability to see messages on multiple devices is a must.
- Voice Messages
- Video Calls
- Group Video Calls
- Stories integrated into as first class citizens
- Private. If you suggest WhatsApp, I’m assuming you’re either stupid or a troll.
Can anyone recommend anything?
Signal is modern as in modern, good cryptography. Most of development time went into that.
With security, you always need to trade-off convenience and bling features. “Lazy as hell” don’t go well with that. I can understand lacking group video calls and ability to run on multiple devices, but not “sticker repository” and “animated emojis”. I wish they didn’t spend time on the Stories feature either, it’s supposed to be a messenger, not a social media platform.
The problem with Signal is getting other people to use it.
Part of that issue is "the dropping of support for SMS, and the awful UI/UX.
I think the challenge of getting others to use anything other than what they’re used to is going to be the same regardless what that anything is. I know people who have continued to use something no matter how many articles were published about its security flaws, data harvesting and spying. They just don’t care. It’s what they know and it’s what their friends know.
So if you’re going to have to change someone else’s mind, pick what you like best because that won’t be the deal-breaker.
Isn’t it the opposite? I always thought Signal is pretty much the only private messenger that has any chance of mass adoption. I mean, most people at least heard about it which is already a lot in comparison to others.
Also, personally I actually really like the UI/UX. I’m curious, could you elaborate what you don’t like about it?
Regarding SMS support… Yeah, I agree. I really miss that feature.
the dropping of support for SMS
Disagree. The fact that most people are clueless about types of messaging and don’t distinguish between SMS, MMS, RCS, iMessage, Signal, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Line and so on just caused extra confusion for regular users. Removing SMS support from Signal was totally justified
what’s wrong with the ui?
I think the problem is, is that there’s a bunch of people who don’t get that modern day communication has changed. Things like Stories and Stickers are a big part of modern day communicating. The cost shouldn’t be not being able to do pretty standard things.
Signal has stories and stickers tho
Neither as first class citizens. Stories are in a tab and stickers are on a third party unofficial website.
Fair enough. I don’t actually use those features so I wouldn’t know.
Signal doesn’t lack group video calls. It can support video calling up to 40 devices at once.
Sticker repository? lol, Telegram has that market cornered and you know it :)
https://matrix.org/ is probably the only reasonable solution to your problem but reading between the lines you’re inferring that Telegram is dead in the water.
I’m a popcorn fanantic and await to see the, corns?
We would not recommend Matrix for security considering the recently admitted their old encryption code was bad and a lot of clients are still using their old encryption code:
https://soatok.blog/2024/08/14/security-issues-in-matrixs-olm-library/
Matrix, Signal, and Threema are the main contenders. Nothing else comes close to all your preferences. For stickers/emoji/gifs, you’ll probably need a third party keyboard, but I don’t have any recommendations for those.
Matrix should not be considered as their security has been pretty bad until recently (they intentionally shipped bad code and knew about it for years): https://soatok.blog/2024/08/14/security-issues-in-matrixs-olm-library/ and many clients still use that bad code.
Threema has been pretty bad historically: https://soatok.blog/2021/11/05/threema-three-strikes-youre-out and their desktop offering is not one-to-one with the mobile apps, it’s pretty limited in what it can do and has to have a device connected to the network at all times, open on the app and unlocked with the screen on.
Signal stickers is a good enough repo to integrate them
What makes signal unsuitable? That’ll help spark some ideas.
1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 11
Which one of those can signal not do?
3, 4, 5 and 11.
Not sure about 1 as we run it on our tablet so it definetly can be linked to other devices but we aren’t sure how many.
7 can be done by linking devices, so not sure what is meant by this.
Edit: ah, okay, so seems the Signal app itself cannot be linked to multiple Android devices, including tablets, that’s pretty bad. The Molly fork can work as a linked devices though, however Signal only supports linking 5 devices at the same time.
- Signal can only run on one Android device
- Signal has no built in sticker repository
- Signal doesn’t have animated emoji
- Signal hasn’t adopted Material You. Especially so for Monet.
- Signal doesn’t synchronize chats because there’s no bridge.
- Signal presents Stories on a separate tab, effectively making them a third class citizen.
Why not signal? It fits your criteria… If not, try GNU Jami, it’s well designed but not material you, and has most of your features.
Edit: Session is another messenger which has some of your features you might want
Why not signal? It fits your criteria…
Okay, I’ll bite. Tell me how it fits my criteria, using the bullet point list provided.
X The ability to run on multiple devices. Me, my family and friends all have multiple Android devices. ✔️ The ability to run on desktop. Linux and Windows. X Built in sticker repository. What can I say, I like to lazy flirt. X Animated Emoji. I like my messenger experience vibrant. ✔️(partial Material You. Again with the vibrancy, but also, it’s a sign of modernity. ✔️ Phone number linking. My family and friends are lazy as hell. ✔️ Synchronized chats. I don’t mind self hosting a bridge, but the ability to see messages on multiple devices is a must. ✔️ Voice Messages ✔️ Video Calls ✔️ Group Video Calls ✔️? Stories integrated into as first class citizens
Not sure what you meant by stories integrated as first class citizens. Signal does have stories, though.
In summary, signal fits your criteria quite well, only missing out on full material you support, stickers, and animated emojis. I may be missing an app, but I believe that this is the best you will get without going for telegram.
Edited for accuracy
Signal Stickers works well enough to have a good repo of stickers.
I didn’t even know about this, that’s cool.
The ability to run on multiple devices. Me, my family and friends all have multiple Android devices.
https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007320551-Linked-Devices
Scroll down to other devices and tell me what it says please
As for the rest, you’re being dishonest with those ticks. I don’t understand what the benefit is.
Not sure what you meant by stories integrated as first class citizens. Signal does have stories, though.
Not tabs.
In summary, signal fits your criteria quite well, only missing out on full material you support, stickers, and animated emojis. I may be missing an app, but I believe that this is the best you will get without going for telegram.
Literally fails at the first hurdle and then the third and fourth, but somehow fits my criteria?
Sorry for checking the first one, I misunderstood your criteria.
“Not tabs” is not clear enough, I still can’t understand what you mean
You never specified that these were in order of importance.
They mean that stories are hidden away in a tab rather than up at the top which would be clearly visible at all times, like other messaging apps do it.
Ok, thanks.
Sure!
The only thing that fits most of your needs is Signal, we have looked into this heavily and nothing has as many features, is as easy to use as and has a strong of focus on privacy and security as Signal, so it’s either that or Whatsapp.
You can techically use signal on multiple devices, by linking them instead of setting them up as each their own ‘host’, if you want it on multiple phones or multiple android devices you’ll likely have to use Molly, I believe this would work, but am unsure.
Matrix should not be considered because of this:
https://soatok.blog/2024/08/14/security-issues-in-matrixs-olm-library/
and Threema is pretty bad historically ( https://soatok.blog/2021/11/05/threema-three-strikes-youre-out/ ), even though they have improved in the last year or two, but their desktop offering is pretty awful, as unless you want to use the beta and use iOS then you have to keep your device attached to the network, on and open on Threema only.
Signal really is the only option here.
I definitely don’t consider WhatsApp to be private, Signal doesn’t support multiple Android devices and Threema sounds pretty useless. So it would seem there’s no real options? Which is a shame.
Yup, all the ‘more private’ ones like SimpleX or Session don’t have as many features and are have pretty suspicious funding sources (or involved in crypto).
WhatsApp might be private but there’s no way to be 100% sure, since it’s closed source and can leak some messages in reports which is intentional.
Yes and no about Signal supporting multiple Android devices, the Molly fork might be able to if you set it up as a linked device, and we know that apple tablets can be linked in the actual Signal app.
Given that SimpleX can be self-hosted, I’m definitely looking at that hopefully. Hopefully someone else develops an app, because cross platform apps are bullshit.
Sadly it won’t meet and/all of your requirements, it is pretty barebones on features and doesn’t really offer message syncing, you have to create a new account for every device, last we checked.
What do you mean cross platform apps are bullshit?
We don’t think more and more messaging apps solves anything really, it just fractures userbases more and more. The best thing folks can do is use the apps that are the most likely for folks to use and work on improving them either by coding for them, or keeping on suggesting and voting for ideas until they get implimented.
Moving again and again to newest app of the week 562 won’t make the situation any better, not to mention most of them probably haven’t had security audits at all or very sparsely if they have, so their privacy and security can’t really be verified.
What do you mean cross platform apps are bullshit?
You’ll be pained to find a world-class app that’s written on a cross platform base. They tend to miss the intricacies of native design conventions and tend to be sluggish.
We don’t think more and more messaging apps solves anything really, it just fractures userbases more and more. The best thing folks can do is use the apps that are the most likely for folks to use and work on improving them either by coding for them, or keeping on suggesting and voting for ideas until they get implimented.
I was actually part of the discussions for Signal implementing stories and the same type of people who were saying they didn’t see the point in adding stories and wanted an option to turn them off, also were vocal enough to get them put in a tab. It’s like the vocal minorities on Reddit that want small phones and think front facing cameras are a waste of time. They get in the way of real progress. What my 18 year old cousin wants from a messenger app is very different to what you or even I want, but the key to growth is definitely developing with the 18 year old in mind.
Sorry, just noticed your pronouns in your username. How do I use them properly? Do I replace you with cele and your with celes?
That’s fair, although really that’s unfortunately because from what we know of there’s no really good cross platform languages/toolkits etc, so usually we do have to end up with some half-assed solution or folks having to maintain multiple native code bases. Either situation isn’t ideal, but until something that provides the option for genuine security and native looks that works well across all platforms is developed we’ll be kind of stuck.
Oh, sad. Hopefully we can kick up enough of a fuss to evetually get it moved. We don’t know if we agree entirely that developing for only one demographic is always the best idea, but more demographics should be considered for sure, yeah.
No, cele/celes are third person pronouns, not second person, our second person pronouns are y’all etc.
It reminds me of how Mozilla was hemorrhaging contributors but kept trying to stick to IRC. I’m definitely not saying don’t support the legacy contributors, but be aware of what modern demographics want to use and why, because if you’re not moving forward, you’re being left behind.
And thank y’all for the clarification, I’ll be sure to get them right in future posts. Forgive my earlier ignorance. I didn’t mean to disrespect y’all.
i use jmp.chat it meets several of your requirements I have no idea if it meets others
I recommend you stop being so lazy. Or use whatsapp, or get your stickers from gboard and use signal.
