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?
Sticker repository? lol, Telegram has that market cornered and you know it :)
https://matrix.org/ is probably the only reasonable solution to your problem but reading between the lines you’re inferring that Telegram is dead in the water.
I’m a popcorn fanantic and await to see the, corns?
We would not recommend Matrix for security considering the recently admitted their old encryption code was bad and a lot of clients are still using their old encryption code:
https://soatok.blog/2024/08/14/security-issues-in-matrixs-olm-library/
Matrix, Signal, and Threema are the main contenders. Nothing else comes close to all your preferences. For stickers/emoji/gifs, you’ll probably need a third party keyboard, but I don’t have any recommendations for those.
Matrix should not be considered as their security has been pretty bad until recently (they intentionally shipped bad code and knew about it for years): https://soatok.blog/2024/08/14/security-issues-in-matrixs-olm-library/ and many clients still use that bad code.
Threema has been pretty bad historically: https://soatok.blog/2021/11/05/threema-three-strikes-youre-out and their desktop offering is not one-to-one with the mobile apps, it’s pretty limited in what it can do and has to have a device connected to the network at all times, open on the app and unlocked with the screen on.
Signal stickers is a good enough repo to integrate them
I recommend you stop being so lazy. Or use whatsapp, or get your stickers from gboard and use signal.
What makes signal unsuitable? That’ll help spark some ideas.
- 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.
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.
The only thing that fits most of your needs is Signal, we have looked into this heavily and nothing has as many features, is as easy to use as and has a strong of focus on privacy and security as Signal, so it’s either that or Whatsapp.
You can techically use signal on multiple devices, by linking them instead of setting them up as each their own ‘host’, if you want it on multiple phones or multiple android devices you’ll likely have to use Molly, I believe this would work, but am unsure.
Matrix should not be considered because of this:
https://soatok.blog/2024/08/14/security-issues-in-matrixs-olm-library/
and Threema is pretty bad historically ( https://soatok.blog/2021/11/05/threema-three-strikes-youre-out/ ), even though they have improved in the last year or two, but their desktop offering is pretty awful, as unless you want to use the beta and use iOS then you have to keep your device attached to the network, on and open on Threema only.
Signal really is the only option here.
I definitely don’t consider WhatsApp to be private, Signal doesn’t support multiple Android devices and Threema sounds pretty useless. So it would seem there’s no real options? Which is a shame.
Yup, all the ‘more private’ ones like SimpleX or Session don’t have as many features and are have pretty suspicious funding sources (or involved in crypto).
WhatsApp might be private but there’s no way to be 100% sure, since it’s closed source and can leak some messages in reports which is intentional.
Yes and no about Signal supporting multiple Android devices, the Molly fork might be able to if you set it up as a linked device, and we know that apple tablets can be linked in the actual Signal app.
Given that SimpleX can be self-hosted, I’m definitely looking at that hopefully. Hopefully someone else develops an app, because cross platform apps are bullshit.
