Hi everyone, I am looking for an encrypted messaging service to start using and recommending to my friends and family, I really want to get this right the first time. At the moment I’m looking at using matrix I really like it’s bridges and federated nature, Although I’m not 100% sure about it’s ux.
What I want to ask is what messaging service do you use and do you have any regrets with it? What encrypted messaging service would you recommended?
Edit: I just had another question are any of the bridges in matrix end to end encrypted? If person A used matrix and person B used signal could person A use a bridge to talk to person B securely?
for me it’s xmpp. now that monal on ios has almost reached feature parity with conversations on android, there’s no reason xmpp shouldn’t be the go-to alternative to whatsapp.
I don’t think signal is the answer. a centralised service susceptible to all the things wrong with whatsapp. matrix is bloated. push notifications on simplex android is still sketchy.
and i dont buy the argument that onboarding is too complicated these days. most people can make an account for anything they feel is worth it.
Rolled up scrolls attached to foxes
Listn, I don’t mind occasionally moving your scrolls back and forth, but if you would attach them to my back instead of my legs it would make it a lot easier OK.
Recommending to friends and family means Signal. With a phone number they can start using the gold standard for encryption from the get go.
Just a note that there’s an in development fediverse app called ‘sup’ by the creators of pixelfed. It’s not released yet but is going to be encrypted and Open Source. https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113912441928236882
I’d consider Signal to be the gold standard of secure communications.
You can describe it to them like WhatsApp, except it’s private, secure, not Facebook-owned, nonprofit so it can’t be bought or sold, etc.
Here’s the blog post that I share with my friends comparing Signal to iMessage and WhatsApp when they ask me about it.
It usually answers most of their questions.
I just moved to Signal and have convinced most of my family and many friends to join. It is very secure, non-profit and doesn’t share much personal data (the least of the main messaging services) and most of my luddite family has been able to figure it out.
Signal for your family (mostly due to interface), Matrix for online communities, and SimplexChat if you’re trying to be a privacy extremist. I did have some success with setting simplexchat up for some old people over the phone because they didn’t need an account.
signal or SimpleX.
I’m starting to move away from Matrix, primarily because its metadata is not encrypted. So you might have a message that’s encrypted, but the emoji reaction like a thumbs up is not encrypted, and the time it was sent and received is not encrypted, and who it was sent from and to is not encrypted.
Not to mention that in Matrix, private key management for encryption in rooms and stuff like that is quite frankly a pain in the ass. Even I as a cryptocurrency user have trouble making sure that my keys are properly stored without fucking them up.
I would not recommend my friends or family members use it for these reasons.
Signal
Signal is the easiest with true end to end encryption with keys stored on the endpoints only.
I’ve used Signal since it first came out as TextSecure like 10+ years ago.
It doesnt have fancy bells or whistles, but its work well for me and good enough that ive gotten elderly family members to use it too
Signal. It’s changed a lot. For the better.
Contains proprietary code. I recommend Molly-FOSS instead.
Upvoted.
Appreciate the reply, but I don’t mind some proprietary code. There are very few reviews of open code by respected bodies (I’m writing in generality here). I’m certainly not qualified to review code. Just being open is only the beginning of the journey.
As we’ve seen with some open software recently there are some active hackers successfully targeting open software because it is open. Such exploits are not always discovered in good time.
https://thenewstack.io/why-so-much-open-source-software-is-vulnerable-to-hackers/
https://thehackernews.com/2025/01/github-desktop-vulnerability-risks.html
Etc etc.
I place store by the warrant responses and action of government entities against some software.
Thanks. You’re not wrong, and I appreciate the well-written response. Some might say you are defending/advocating proprietary software with this stance, but I don’t think there is a clear answer either way that applies to every circumstance.
Thank-you for your kindness. And it is really kind!
I’m old so my view of prop software is rooted in the change of early Microsoft et al bringing real change to the dubious parasitic entities that they are today. I watched it slowly happen and have been delighted and contributing in a small way with Linux since the turn of the century.
RedHat had been sold to the ‘no-one ever got fired for buying IBM’ (I still can’t believe that they believed that that was a winning slogan). In these trying times the love for open source isn’t translating into enough cash; average people are stretched.
I can’t wait for the leaders in my country to stop pandering to the world’s oligarchs and serve the people that elected them.
Matrix, xmpp, simplex. Do not use Signal or any service with centralized servers hosted in a 5 eyes country.
Seconding simplex. Having a built in way to obfuscate IP is very nice. But its more for privacy extremism and small group chats for people in vulnerable situations, matrix is best for most situations e.g. community and interest groups. I also had some ease with setting up simplex with my grandma, funny enough. Not needing to make an account made it much easier for her.
Hope Lemmy gets a simplexchat field one day!
Signal for security standard and ease of use, which is essential, if You want to use it with non techy people.
Simplex for anonymity, You can download it, share chat and start talking without registration.
Simplex for anonymity, You can download it, share chat and start talking without registration.
It ate my battery when I installed it. Do you use it on a daily basis? What’s your experience with its battery consumption?
Have it on always on, with small scale friends and family use. Don’t find it too draining, updates have improved the battery usage
I’m in one room with 1,500 people and it uses about 7% of my battery. Mind you, that is a lot for a messenger. But I can deal with that.
Sadly, I have no one to use with it, so I don’t know about battery usage. I just like, that it doesn’t require any external identifiers, unlike Signal.
Yup echoing most here. Unless you or someone you are paying are willing to put time and effort in to maintaining Matrix, go with Signal. It’s like WhatsApp but actually secure and is appropriate for the vast majority of use cases.
