I have been cleaning my phone - removing Google Services, Google Account and replacing it with alternatives. Strangely, I do still have many very different messaging app. If I count correctly, there is Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, Viber and also two local apps TakeUp and Mastadon. I am more and more returning back to SMS messages and normal encrypted e-mails.
What do you use most and is it normal, to have so many messaging apps and using them all for different people groups?
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Email and sometimes irc. And old fashioned sms when needed.
IRC is still alive?
IRC will never die! I mean, it probably will eventually. It’s still fairly popular with Linux users, and even stil preinstalled on some distros
Are there some websites or lists of interesting channels?
Depends on what you’re into. It’s kinda like discord, in that it has a lot of servers for specific communities/apps/games, etc.
I used it mostly for pirating cause it was always blazing fast compared to torrenting.
Libera.chat, IRCNet, Undernet, Rizon, EFNet are the biggest networks I can think of off my head. Each has like 5000 to 20000 channels!
I tried to get everyone on Signal, and I personally donate £5 monthly to Signal, but everybody left. I’m forced to be 100% WhatsApp, because that’s what society uses.
I’m somewhat annoyed that the EU offered Signal the chance of becoming relevant on a silver platter, by forcing WhatsApp to open itself up and offer interoperability with other chat apps, while still maintaining proper E2EE using the Signal protocol, and Signal said nah.
I stopped using Signal when they dropped SMS support.
It’s a great project but with very bad leadership and strategy.
They definitely had the best shot to secure communications and wasted it.
wait, you’re actually using encrypted email? Is it for work or you use it with friends/family too?
I’ve never received an encrypted email in my entire life.
Encrypted like Proton Email - it means they don’t read my emails by default like Google or Microsoft
I use MS Teams for work. We don’t have to use it, but it’s more comfortable to send a chat message when I’m late for a meeting, than to phone the front desk and tell them to relay it to all attendees. Also, you can send Chats to yourself and I do it for work related notes I want to make off work, i.e. a neews article I want to share with colleagues during working hours.
I try to steer as many people as I know to Signal, but I don’t want to be the type of person who accepts no compromise so I also use a bunch of others. Whatsapp is the most common, as pretty much everyone here in the Netherlands uses it. I used to use Telegram, but nowadays I trust it less than Whatsapp and all my Telegram chats have moved to Signal. SMS is only there for backup and older people who don’t use other apps. And Discord is there for people who want their messages to never be read, because that app is a dumpster fire that constantly makes me miss messages.
Signal for some friends and family, Whatsapp (ugh) mainly for work, Discord (ugh ugh) with a few gaming buddies, and Matrix for a group chat or two.
I’ve tried to get my friends consolidated in one app in the past, but have given up. I prefer Discord, but use a combo of that and Slack, Signal, GroupMe, IG, FB Messenger, SMS, email, and probably some others I’m forgetting about. Discord is the only one I directly open, the others I’ll just rely on notifications.
I’d love to use Signal exclusively and recommend it or move over group chats wherever possible. But some friends and family keep me on WhatsApp and messenger. IMHO using those less is better than using them a lot and having more apps is better than socially isolating yourself.
Currently I have WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, Viber, a Matrix client (Fluffy), Discord, Slack, SMS, email.
I try to use Signal whenever I can, but convincing people to install yet another messaging app is hard. I don’t see the situation getting better, none of the major players is close to going out of business.
Surprised no one mentioned simplex yet. So whatsapp, matrix (personal server, for family and as a bridge to whatsapp), and simplex.
What is Simplex?
Discord and Whatsapp
I’d love to use Signal, but virtually noone in my sphere uses it.I use SMS and good old phone calls. You would be surprised how much people freak up when you call them. For work I use Slack, sometimes Teams. And on rare occasions, Messenger to talk to some family members.
edit Forgot about emails. I use it for more planned communications.
Surprised nobody here is talking about Matrix. Open source, client side / end to end encrypted, chat history stored (encrypted) on the server so it syncs to every device, supports federation, and supports bridges so you can use Matrix to access your other accounts like Signal, WhatsApp, etc and have everything in one place.
https://Beeper.com is based on Matrix and worth a look. But you can also self-host everything.
I really like beeper, but im probably gonna selfhost all the bridges once i have the hw
FWIW beeper is moving towards a client side hosting model where your phone app hosts the bridges. They currently have a local hosted Signal bridge which runs on the phone…
did they also move the HS to the phone?
That was for Beeper Mini which was an attempt at imessage on android.
I don’t think the new version runs the homeserver on the phone; with the new version you can still participate in federated chats and use the desktop client so I don’t think it majorly changed in that way.
Happy self-hosting matrix user with bridges to various chats, and I’ve successfully converted family to use it, too.
People really like having all their chats in one app.
It’s not simple though. Matrix is the most complicated service I have to maintain.
Yeah Synapse is still largely a first gen system. There will be others.
iMessage exclusively p much
I use Signal with my girlfriend. Others only use Kakaotalk, which is a shittier South Korean Whatsapp clone with more ads and more ways to make money off of you and occasionally SMS.
Exactly the same here. I loathe kakao
