It seems like I constantly see “X secure messaging option is actually bullshit because it was purchased by Dr. Evil and Y is actually just e-mailing your messages directly to Xi Jinping.”
Is there an authoritatively “best” one I can just…download and setup easily? Is Signal good? Or do I need to solder a Raspberry Pi to the flux modulator of my home Linux NAS GUI, etc…?
There is no best, each has their merits and drawbacks.
If you were to pick a messaging app I would go with Singal because they give good transparency to users, while giving frustrations to governments wanting data.
Also Elin Musk has blocked signal links on Twitter.
Only downsides of Signal are 1. It’s centralized 2. You have to sign up with a phone number.
It’s secure, cross platform, and easy to set up and use.
Probably most importantly, it’s a similar experience to using other popular texting apps and the set-up experience is familiar to anyone singing into any big-brand-name app, making it a relatively easy sell to non-techies.
Signal has good encryption etc, is centralized, afaik needs Google Play Services except if you use Molly; but I think it’s a bit more mainstream and simple to use for end-users
SimpleX also seems to have good encryption, post-quantum etc, and is anonymous and doesn’t even use user identifiers (they explain why that’s good on their website), so it could be good for occasional more sensitive conversations or sth (but I see people struggling with onboarding when installing it, and I still get confused by the UX sometimes). It’s kind of not even decentralized, more like peer-to-peer, with servers to just cache messages when you’re offline, I think.
Personally for day-to-day I prefer to use Matrix with Element: decentralized (which I really value for competition and user choice), e2e, and has good support for creating communities etc, so I’m lucky to have it as our main chat platform for work, and I’ve been using it for years in our hackerspace and personal chats etc. I see end-users still struggling sometimes with onboarding, but if they’re close friends/family I usually need to set it up for them anyway
Signal runs just fine without play services for me. It does drain quite a bit of battery without cloud messaging, but that is to be excepted since it needs to keep its own connection up in that case
Doesn’t most of Element route through Matrix.org?
Signal is the best balance between secure and convenience. There are more private options out there (i.e. don’t require a phone number), but they are harder to adapt especially if you want to get non-techy family and friends to switch over.
Signal.
Wired had an interview with Signal’s President last year that I found enlightening and provided an entry point for me to self educate further. Here’s an archive.org snapshot of it: https://web.archive.org/web/20240828100224/https://www.wired.com/story/meredith-whittaker-signal/
For the click-averse here’s an excerpt I find compelling:
Going back to your sense of Signal’s new phase: What is going to be different at this point in its life? Are you focused on truly bringing it to a billion people, the way that most Silicon Valley firms are?
I mean, I … Yes. But not for the same reasons. For almost opposite reasons.
Yeah. I don’t think anyone else at Signal has ever tried, at least so vocally, to emphasize this definition of Signal as the opposite of everything else in the tech industry, the only major communications platform that is not a for-profit business.
Yeah, I mean, we don’t have a party line at Signal. But I think we should be proud of who we are and let people know that there are clear differences that matter to them. It’s not for nothing that WhatsApp is spending millions of dollars on billboards calling itself private, with the load-bearing privacy infrastructure having been created by the Signal protocol that WhatsApp uses.
Now, we’re happy that WhatsApp integrated that, but let’s be real. It’s not by accident that WhatsApp and Apple are spending billions of dollars defining themselves as private. Because privacy is incredibly valuable. And who’s the gold standard for privacy? It’s Signal.
I think people need to reframe their understanding of the tech industry, understanding how surveillance is so critical to its business model. And then understand how Signal stands apart, and recognize that we need to expand the space for that model to grow. Because having 70 percent of the global market for cloud in the hands of three companies globally is simply not safe. It’s Microsoft and CrowdStrike taking down half of the critical infrastructure in the world, because CrowdStrike cut corners on QA for a fucking kernel update. Are you kidding me? That’s totally insane, if you think about it, in terms of actually stewarding these infrastructures.
Signal using the Molly fork is good. Besides that, there’s stuff like Session and Simplex for nerds out there. Matrix exists but it doesn’t encrypt all metadata iirc.
Its best not to use a phone at all if you can help it.
The keyboard app on most phones that are default still gives info to apple/google. So even if you use signal, the data goes over.
You can side-load apps that take phone keyboards over (even better if you don’t use base android OS at all). But I dont know your situation.
I know your joking but the most secure that is still usable is probably an encrypted home server and using something like irc/XMPP. A pi with yunohost can do wonders. You can use the converse app on the phone to hook into that. It’s auto encrypted if you go that route.
Security is a spectrum so you have to chose how much inconvenience is best for your situation.
If self-hosting and “Warning, some assembly required” isnt an issue, Matrix - Synapse. I spooled that up in my home lab recently and im slowly moving my group chats over to it.
Signal or XMPP
Am I the only one here who has heard of Olvid?
For everyone suggesting signal, have a read here and then decide for yourself.
https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/8974
ETA: when I say “decide for yourself” I mean exactly that. I don’t think all the stuff written in there is true, but some is. You should make a decision based on what you think about those comments, not trust them blindly. But at least you can make an informed decision.
