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Alternative to Signal and TG ?

#21
alain said:
I think it's kind of weird that no one has made something like Skype, or even ICQ, for that matter. Why does everything have to be so damn complicated these days with apps, phone numbers, and tons of personal info?

Session is pretty good, but in my opinion, it’s missing a decent UI.
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Yes I agree, it's weird. I think it's because developers are focusing more on mobile applications as almost everyone is doing everything from their phone these days, shopping, paying bills, social media, even doctor appointments.

There are things like XMPP with OMEMO which is actually very secure and works across all platforms. However it can be a bit tricky for normies to get it setup. Apps like Signal is far easier and a plug and play solution. The majority of people are lazy, they just want it to work without doing anything.

But yeah a old school style messenger like ICQ with E2EE would indeed be awesome.
 
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#22
CryptoKnight said:
Yes I agree, it's weird. I think it's because developers are focusing more on mobile applications as almost everyone is doing everything from their phone these days, shopping, paying bills, social media, even doctor appointments.

There are things like XMPP with OMEMO which is actually very secure and works across all platforms. However it can be a bit tricky for normies to get it setup. Apps like Signal is far easier and a plug and play solution. The majority of people are lazy, they just want it to work without doing anything.

But yeah a old school style messenger like ICQ with E2EE would indeed be awesome.
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I think many did. There was Speak Freely written in 1996 by John Walker. It was superior to pretty much anything back then, including Microsoft NetMeeting. But please take your time to read the FAQ in the end of life announcement, it contains good answers on got the internet evolved.

We are now steps further from back then. There are plenty of chat protocols and clients mentioned here, all with their advantages and shortcomings. You know why Facebook took off so well? Because you could find friends by their real name as opposed to all other community pages where everybody was hiding behind a nickname. And still two decades later, guys not even half as smart as John Walker are flocking to OCT, hiding behind an alter ego.

You see, there is Session and SimpleX, which pretty much is an ICQ with encryption and privacy. But people don't use it nearly as much as WhatsApp simply because you cannot find your friend that easily.
 
#23
daniels27 said:
I think many did. There was Speak Freely written in 1996 by John Walker. It was superior to pretty much anything back then, including Microsoft NetMeeting. But please take your time to read the FAQ in the end of life announcement, it contains good answers on got the internet evolved.

We are now steps further from back then. There are plenty of chat protocols and clients mentioned here, all with their advantages and shortcomings. You know why Facebook took off so well? Because you could find friends by their real name as opposed to all other community pages where everybody was hiding behind a nickname. And still two decades later, guys not even half as smart as John Walker are flocking to OCT, hiding behind an alter ego.

You see, there is Session and SimpleX, which pretty much is an ICQ with encryption and privacy. But people don't use it nearly as much as WhatsApp simply because you cannot find your friend that easily.
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Never heard if it, but again I was just a kid back in 1996. I will read the FAQ when I get some time over. Thank you.
Yeah exactly, because of the simplicity and also friends suggestions. It also took of so well because people were naive and didn't think everything would be stored forever and owned by a company. It was new. Fast forward 20 years and most people still don't care, "if you've got nothing to hide then why worry". They are not yet aware of the possible implications of AI such as facial recognition, linguistic forensics, pattern recognition etc. There is a reason why governments want to implement laws such as Chat Control etc. They hate E2EE, they hate not being able to have control. Even if government surveillance isn't of any concern to people with "nothing to hide" what about criminals and other bad actors? WE ALL GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE whether we know it or not.

Applications like Signal and WhatsApp is a blessing because of it's ease of use and should be used by everyone. For 95% of people they will be more than enough. For more tech savvy there will always be other and more advanced alternatives and layers you can add such as a VPN, Tor etc. Like you mentioned for example SimpleX that routes everything through Tor.

There is also PGP, but good luck getting normies to use that.
 
#28
I got a bit tired of all these overly complicated setups, so I decided to use SESSION for all the top secret stuff I talk to people about, and just stick with simple TEAMS for everything else that doesn’t really matter. It was easy to move my contacts from Skype to Teams.
 
#29
jorge said:
I got a bit tired of all these overly complicated setups, so I decided to use SESSION for all the top secret stuff I talk to people about, and just stick with simple TEAMS for everything else that doesn’t really matter. It was easy to move my contacts from Skype to Teams.
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I understand you, but Teams is a nightmare for any kind of privacy and they also collect a sickening amount of data on you. If video meetings are important for you then I highly recommend https://jitsi.org/ instead. It also works directly in the browser for those that doesn't want to install the client by using https://meet.jit.si/ I've used it on quite a few occasions and it has worked flawlessly.
 
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#30
CryptoKnight said:
I understand you, but Teams is a nightmare for any kind of privacy and they also collect a sickening amount of data on you. If video meetings are important for you then I highly recommend https://jitsi.org/ instead. It also works directly in the browser for those that doesn't want to install the client by using https://meet.jit.si/ I've used it on quite a few occasions and it has worked flawlessly.
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That’s exactly what I’m saying if you actually read my post. Use Teams for all the random stuff, and Sessions for the important things.
 
#31
jorge said:
That’s exactly what I’m saying if you actually read my post. Use Teams for all the random stuff, and Sessions for the important things.
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I did read it, I'm just saying Teams is horrible even if used for everything else "that doesn't matter". But I get it, some people refuse to use anything else so it can be necessary. Just wanted to let you know that there are alternatives to use if you would like to. Even for the stuff that doesn't matter. But if you're comfortable having it on your device the rock on! ;) We all live in different places and some are more Orwellian than others.
 
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