No root, no cake. In the US, that is

In countries where you MUST show your proof of identity to get a number, pray tell me what kind of OPSEC can you employ to not do that?

Only if you don’t have to show your ID to get a number

That depends on your OPSEC

It is not. You do not show any ID to get a phone number

The problem is, if you’re in Europe, your phone number is associated with your identity

Arguable in it being “the best app for privacy”. Can you link to a source which shows that phone numbers are not linked to accounts? (Why do they need them anyway?)

I didn’t know that. Thanks

TBH I would just use email over TOR and encrypt communication with PGP. Rotate identities every now and then and you should be fine. Yes it doesn’t have forward secrecy but it removes the effort to find the “right messaging” service and is instead ubiquitous (and you can sign up for anonymous email addresses online too, which makes it even better).

Sure they don’t log the IPs, but it is technically impossible to not know the IP when you’re running a centralized service.