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What do you recommend as a good FOSS private and secure chat app on Android that isn't Signal? (lemm.ee)
submitted 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by to c/privacyguides@lemmy.one
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I have nothing against Signal. I just don't have access to a phone number right now. I fully intend to use the Signal when I get a number. I know there is no silver bullet, no absolutes in the privacy world but I'm looking for any messengers that are generally considered to be private and secure on Android that I can try to convince my friends and family to use. I have a mid - low threat model, it's just the thought of giving the Zuck anymore of my family's data makes my skin crawl.

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[–] 4 points 3 years ago (2 children)

peer to peer means that the information goes from one "peer" (device) to the other, no middleman

end to end encrypted means that the message is encrypted before transit and is then decrypted at the other "end" once it's on the recipient's device. end to end could have a server acting as a middleman, storing these encrypted messages, allowing for chat logs to be stored more conveniently and messages to be sent while one peer is offline.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    this makes more sense if you understand public and private keys

    when encrypting a message, there are two keys. the public key can only be used to encrypt and the private key to decrypt. a recipient will put its public key out and a peer wishing to send it a message will use this key to encrypt it. once the message arrives, the recipient can use their private key to then decrypt the message

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Aaaah, got it, thank you so much for clearing that up for me. I apologize for my incorrect message then. From these comments, I'm inclined to say Matrix remains OP's best option.

    Thank you for educating me! 😊

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