Signal is the best.
The thing it’s missing the most is better multi device support and an updated desktop client.
For me, I think Matrix is more complete (specially since it backs-up your chats and media encrypted). The only thing it’s lacking (at least Element specific) is encrypted chat search support on mobile.
What matrix is missing is anyone that I know. Ultimately that is way more important than features in a messaging client.
In my personal experience, everyone who has an account with Signal also has with Matrix. The main issue for me is who has an account at all.
I’ve used signal for ages but didn’t know what Matrix was until Lemmy tbh
I’ve somehow never used WhatsApp.
You must not be from Europe or Brazil then
pls send help
Oh, that recruitment agent sometime ago.
Are you using facebook?
No
Whatsapp?
No
Xing?
No
…
Hey, just send me an E-Mail.
Gigachad.
I on the other hand was actually pleasantly surprised when I got contacted by a recruiter on Matrix , that was the best feeling ever
How though
No idea. It’s just not a platform anyone in my life has used in a manner that dragged me in.
Surely it can’t be so popular it’s inconceivable to you that someone hasn’t used it.
If you live in most of Europe or definitely Latin America, yeah, it is so popular it’s kind of inconceivable not to use it, or at least hard to imagine. I genuinely don’t understand how people in the US communicate.
signal and telegram are so much better, don’t know why we can’t get over that shit app
In some countries like India, people just assume that everyone uses whatsapp. It’s gotten to the point where whatsapp has become the definition of messaging (for most people).
I don’t see how Whatsapp is outdated to the point where one would compare it to IE, but I’ll say whatsapp is more like Google Chrome than IE.
Except people at one point realized that IE is shit and switched to better alternatives. I don’t see this happening with WhatsApp - everyone and their great grandfather uses it and all other messengers are niche occurrences
Here, use this:
in our country we use viber and I don’t know which one is worse
That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time… what country?
Lithuania
Serbia
My family in the U.S uses Viber. We switched when hangouts was originally going to be axed. Tried to get everyone on Signal but was told it wasn’t as friendly for the elderly family.
I hope that the DMA gets passed in the EU. It’ll (hopefully) break the monopoly worldwide
Interoperability is a weird one though. Imagine WhatsApp can connect to Signal, and people use this feature. What would then be the point of using Signal, if WhatsApp gets the data after all?
(Signal has already announced not wanting to support this, I just used it as an example)
True. However there are certain advantages
- WhatsApp gets only a part of your data (coz many people might be on different apps)
- You don’t have to run WhatsApp on your device so they can’t collect that data either
I know it’s not perfect but better than the current scenario and a step in the right direction
I prefer Signal to Whatsapp. IDC about Whatsapp having my data. The point is choosing the app which most suits your needs and wants.
So what needs do you have outside of a different look? Privacy doesn’t seem to be one of them, and the two apps are very similar otherwise.
So I can use one app I like and message or call anyone I need to reach without having to set up 10 accounts.
Fair enough. Won’t work with Signal though, they’ve stated that they will never open up
Signal is irrelevant. It’s just an example. I can try Telegram or any other app.
As I understand it, your example should be the other way around. WhatsApp will need to offer a public API to allow Signal to send and receive messages to/from WhatsApp users.
Signal is unlikely to be deemed a gatekeeper, so can keep their closed communication ecosystem. They can just optionally choose to support interop with WhatsApp. If they prefer, they can also have big warning signs in the UI, when their users decide to utilize that interop.
Whatever way it works, I could see people giving up certain services if they allow interoperability with the gatekeepers, because why use these alternatives then.
But then again, the services that take privacy seriously won’t do it in the first place, so it should be a non-issue.
This is the stupidest use of this stupid meme with this stupid piece of shit that I’ve ever seen
I only use it because there’s no way I could convince my friends and family to move to anything else.
There’s no point in switching to another app if I then literally couldn’t communicate with the people I need to through it.
I’ve been using Beeper a month or two. They had a long waiting list, and initially it was subscription only, but they are working on smashing through the waiting list and have changed to a freemium model where you get it for free and (eventually) they will have extra features for subscribers.
Basically, it’s one chat app that connects to lots of different chat services.
If you’re technical, the app is a fork of Element, and the service uses matrix bridges to connect to different chat services, but it’s all presented in a (somewhat) polished way. The wait list is because they are still struggling with scaling and quirks but if you’re on Lemmy you’re probably already well familiar with putting up with this.
It covers heaps of chat networks. Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Signal, Telegram, and more. It also will let you SMS (unlike Signal 😬).
You can also connect to Matrix rooms but you don’t seem to be able to connect to an existing Matrix account (it uses a Beeper matrix account to connect).
It doesn’t do video/audio calls so they recommend you leave the original app installed and disable message notifications (but leave on call notifications) if you use this.
Eh, whatsapp isn’t ideal and its owner is one of the big devils of today, but it’s the only way to send and receive instant messages among billions of people. I despise it, but it’s the only way I can contact people. Needless to say, they don’t give a single flying fuck about privacy.
Whatsapp outages make people migrate to Telegram for 1-2 days at most, nobody ends up staying there. Signal? I’ve only ever met three other people in RL who have even heard of it, and I work in IT.
A more apt comparison would be to languages. Whatsapp is english: clunky, weird, full of nonsense, but it’s what “everyone talks”. Signal would probably be lojban or esperanto.
WhatsApp is like hemorrhoids, you can try to ignore it but it’s getting your attention eventually no matter how hard you try.
And all the Europeans have it
Definitely tje easiest way to have a family group chat between multiple countries.
SMS is IE, Whatsapp is Chrome, and Signal is Firefox. Use Signal/Firefox.
So how do I get my friends to use Signal instead of fucking Facebook messenger?
I really don’t get the need to have an app that does messaging. My phone DOES messaging, built in. Why do I need another one?
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I have Android, my wife has iOS, I can chat with her singly and in group chat with other family members, I don’t see a need to complicate things with another chat application.
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