I tried SimpleX but the VPN kill switch on my phone prevents syncing with my computer.
I use telegram primarily as a note taking app with sync features.
Occasionally I send files to friends, so having easy set up for tech illiterate would be great.
Signal?
edit / wait - an alternative for telegram as a note taking app??
there are decent note apps, like notally, that are smaller than 2mb 🤷
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.kin.easynotes/ 3mb
https://f-droid.org/packages/io.github.quillpad/ 4.6 and it can sync
https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.notes/ 8.9
and than there’s joplin
Standard Notes is my go to for notes 100%. It’s all about privacy through encryption and is FOSS. Plus for this specific scenario, it also allows for notes export.
I don’t disagree, but taking notes in Signal gets you syncing automatically which is convenient and something OP asked for 🤷
Friends used telegram so I had the app installed. It was easier to store documents in telegram than in one drive or proton drive, so telegram became my go too. Obviously not the best setup, but it worked and was easy. I’ll try out Signal and Matrix, but continence is a big factor in my choice.
Signal
I think the intent is baby steps for those who aren’t already privacy invested. Getting parents or tech illiterate to switch to Signal is a win. They weren’t hiding their number anyway.
I currently have a Signal account tied to a sim not in my name. Getting a burner with cash is an option then park it. Or, if you’re lucky enough to live near a payphone and can gain access to the number, you can activate a signal with a phone call.
Signal can’t do shit Canit sync messages b/w devices seamlessly? Doe it have unlimited storage? Channels? Isn’t upload size limit 100mb? Telegram has 4gb. Advance Bots? Good Ui/Ux? High quality stickers? Big public groups? Mini apps? Lol, signal is NOT an alternative to telegram as a whole, it can only partly replace its messaging functionality
Signal is private. This is c/privacy.
Telegram is not private at all, but has channels and big groups and even, yes, mini-apps.
So Telegram is not an alternative to Signal either, it doesn’t even start solving problems that are solved genially in Signal.
Well signal also has the note to self.
People will hate this, but WhatsApp is probably the second best and convenient to most people. (But if your friends are willing to get signal, do it.) In fact it was always better than telegram, there I said it.
Also there’s many great note taking apps that have a sync feature. Joplin for one.
joplin and all the others who want to run yet another web browser in parralel on your resource constrained phone.
I know, my fault that my phone does not have at least 16 GB of RAM…
about whatsapp: used it for years. it’s not any better. the only part in which it could be is encryption, but only if
- you trust how that black box handles encryption, and your messages before and after it
- you trust that it’ll not datamine the shit out of whatever it has access to on your phone
- you are fine with the yearly remote code execution vulnerabilities it has through calls and such you didnt even notice, let alone accept
I think Matrix is the way to go because you can host your own server and be completely self hosting without a 3rd party involved.
I’ve gone this route. Not for the faint of heart. If you’re not self-hosting savvy, but you know someone that hosts a server, absolutely sign up with them. Or use a local public server like pikaviestin.fi, which provides accounts for finnish citizens.
This. I‘m hosting a couple matrix servers and have many friends who have a ton of issues. It really depends on the admin and how tech savvy everyone involved is. If you cant be arsed to understand how key sharing works and check out which is the best client for you, matrix might bot be the best choice. I love it, personally but I suggest it rarely since tech illiterate users tend to get really upset about a free product not matching their insane standards.
To add to this, XMPP is much cheaper to host and offers basically the same features when it comes to what OP needs. I host Prosody and it uses so little resources you could probably get it running on the cheapest server you could find.
It’s probably 15 years ago I used XMPP the last time. Back then there were many compatibility problems between the apps and especially on the mobile phone with push notifications, etc. There were problems sending media and VOIP calls were non existent outside of the Google clients.
My guess is that some of those things improved but I have not heard anyone in my circles using it, especially since Matrix became a bit more popular, most of the Open Source projects on IRC also moved to Matrix.
Yeah, XMPP has changed a loooott since then.
XMPP’s main problems at the moment are clients, in my opinion. There’s 3 main clients for PC; one is 100% python (including frontend) and breaks semi-regularly, one does not officially support Windows and thus cuts out a large portion of the community + doesn’t have as many features as others, and one lacks features and looks extremely outdated. The state on iOS is even worse as well, and Android is fine but could be better.
If you’re considering XMPP again, I’d recommend waiting a few months for Prose https://prose.org/ to fully release, it looks like it’ll improve the experience a lot.
most of the Open Source projects on IRC also moved to Matrix.
No, they moved to libera.chat
Just a heads up about people’s suggestions on signal. If you don’t open your desktop client often and it needs to be logged back in it will not sync your latest notes to self messages (perhaps other messages too).
