In light of what’s happened to Durov and possibly seeing Telegram compromised, I’m doubling my efforts to find a new main messenger. Before you start, not Signal as it’s a bad fit for the needs of me, my family and friends.
So what do I need?
- The ability to run on multiple devices. Me, my family and friends all have multiple Android devices.
- The ability to run on desktop. Linux and Windows.
- Built in sticker repository. What can I say, I like to lazy flirt.
- Animated Emoji. I like my messenger experience vibrant.
- Material You. Again with the vibrancy, but also, it’s a sign of modernity.
- Phone number linking. My family and friends are lazy as hell.
- Synchronized chats. I don’t mind self hosting a bridge, but the ability to see messages on multiple devices is a must.
- Voice Messages
- Video Calls
- Group Video Calls
- Stories integrated into as first class citizens
- Private. If you suggest WhatsApp, I’m assuming you’re either stupid or a troll.
Can anyone recommend anything?
What makes signal unsuitable? That’ll help spark some ideas.
3, 4, 5 and 11.
Not sure about 1 as we run it on our tablet so it definetly can be linked to other devices but we aren’t sure how many.
7 can be done by linking devices, so not sure what is meant by this.
Edit: ah, okay, so seems the Signal app itself cannot be linked to multiple Android devices, including tablets, that’s pretty bad. The Molly fork can work as a linked devices though, however Signal only supports linking 5 devices at the same time.
- Signal can only run on one Android device
- Signal has no built in sticker repository
- Signal doesn’t have animated emoji
- Signal hasn’t adopted Material You. Especially so for Monet.
- Signal doesn’t synchronize chats because there’s no bridge.
- Signal presents Stories on a separate tab, effectively making them a third class citizen.
