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.
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?
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.
Yes, here’s the supported features for the recommended bridge: https://matrix.org/ecosystem/bridges/whatsapp/
This is cool, are there downsides? Like will messages be strangely formatted or anything for my contacts?
Also, are there bridges for other apps? Signal, telegram, messenger? I’d love to have one messenger app to rule them all
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.
Do you think signal’s voice quality is not as good as whatsapp? It might be because they have less servers than whatsapp
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
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.
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.
