Sigh cant get my family off WhatsApp.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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The trick is to never talk to people.
I made the jump a few years ago. The vast majority of my contacts didn't migrate from WhatsApp, and only a select few of my closest pals did.
It has been fuckin' awesome.
I'm confused, isn't Signal American?
Yeah... It's non-profit and open source... it's not ideal but Matrix or something else is an even harder sell.
Better than Facebook.
how is matrix a harder sell? they're both equally obscure to the average person and matrix at least can be quite easily compared to discord.
Moving people to Signal has been a slow road, even though it's feature rich and has a lot of users.
I don't know a single person IRL that uses Matrix.
I like Matrix and I use it but I'm not too experienced with it so I'm not going to push it hard. The bridges seem like a really great selling point but I have no experience with them.
The user experience for matrix wasn't really good during COVID. They do have some kind of phone number registry that ties your phone number to your account, but the encryption had lots of problems. There are still 2 keys for encryption that need separate passwords or something and it's confusing.
They also have a new app "Element X" that is faster than the old app, but lacking some core features. For example there's no way to join a group in the app. Group links don't work, there's no "join group" button, there's no group search, nothing.
From what I understand, their call feature is also "in beta" or something. It just doesn't feel ready to me unless all you do is chat, share pictures, and react with emojis.
However, I still believe the @[email protected] should be investing in it as it's the only EU opensource alternative out there to Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Signal. The German, French, and Italian governments use it, yet somehow, @[email protected] struggles with finances. It's kind of embarrassing for the EU.
Matrix doesn't have a phone number tie, and you can run your own servers. Calls work fine and if you integrate the Jitsi meet application in extensions, you get full conference ability. Encryption is fine and you need to store a key that lets you access your sessions on different devices, besides your server username/password, but it's pretty self-explanatory. There's search for users and you can make groups public and searchable.
I think you should go back and try it, you are obviously way out of the loop.
Matrix doesn't have a phone number tie, and you can run your own servers.
Phone numbers aren't obligatory, but you can add them (see the picture I added).
Calls work fine
Are they encrypted?
Encryption is fine and you need to store a key that lets you access your sessions on different devices, besides your server username/password, but it's pretty self-explanatory
I have 3 different passwords for matrix. A password, a recovery key, a security key (checked my password manager). That isn't self-explanatory to my mom - nor me, actually. How many passwords does a Signal user need to remember? A PIN lock so that other's can't hijack the number and that's it?
There's search for users and you can make groups public and searchable.
They also have a new app "Element X" that is faster than the old app, but lacking some core features. For example there's no way to join a group in the app. Group links don't work, there's no "join group" button, there's no group search, nothing.
I'm talking about Element X.
American yes, but the way it works almost makes it irrelevant fact. So, it's still good and recommended.
Yep.
Is SimpleX american too? Because I liked it more than Signal anyway.
My take is that we should have the most popular services that has acceptable privacy installed and set up at all times, even if we know no one that use it.
Because in the future when one of our friends or family tries it, they find us.
It takes pretty much nothing to have Signal and Matrix set up.
That's my approach. The problem is letting other people know which messengers you have.
I don't use Matrix bridges, if two people are using WhatsApp over Matrix bridges, does it have a way of letting you know and switching to Matrix?
There are many groups on signal. If you join one, there's a chance you'll find more. I've had this in my bookmarks for a while a "general" signal group.
But once you have a few anchor friends you can find excuses to pull the other friends into group chats one at a time.
We just moved my partner's family chat to Signal. Largely due to the current politics.
Yes, I guess the current events give some people an incentive to move