Edit - y’all are awesome! I’m gonna check out all of these - thank you!!
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A family member is moving out of country and convinced the best way to keep in touch is with WhatsApp. I really don’t want to install any Meta shit on my phone.
Any recommendation for a FOSS or other alternative from a company that’s less of an ethical dumpster fire?
I’d recommend just regular texting, but if for whatever reason you can’t/don’t want to the. matrix should work, it’s basically foss discord.
Signal
Seconded - it even has a much better way of dealing with media attachments.
Just make sure you configure a PIN and backups.
XMPP. Oh, wait, company based.
- Signal if you want phone number based signups.
- SimpleX Chat if you want to experience full privacy.
- Threema if you want basically the same as SimpleX Chat, but want to give them money first.
But XMPP would be the best option. Snikket is recommended for easy setup.
For my family member who moved out of country, signal’s voice quality was not very good. WhatsApp’s quality was better than a regular phone call, very impressive.
Also, outside the US WhatsApp is some kind of standard the way rich Americans think iMessage is. Companies will ask her to contact them on WhatsApp, so she’ll have to have it regardless of your personal involvement.
There’s also jitsi.
Also, outside the US WhatsApp is some kind of standard the way rich Americans think iMessage is. Companies will ask her to contact them on WhatsApp, so she’ll have to have it regardless of your personal involvement.
That really depends on the country that the family member is moving to, and is not an absolute thing world-wide.
Do you think signal’s voice quality is not as good as whatsapp? It might be because they have less servers than whatsapp
Signal or XMPP are good option
XMPP may be a bit overwhelming as you need to select a provider and a client. Doesn’t require phone number.
Signal is private and easy to use like whatsapp. Needs phone number to use.
Telegram is cool but encryption isnt enabled by default, would like to avoid it for this. Cool for public groups.
Edit: Teleram isnt good at all, dont use it. Look reason in the replies
Telegram’s MTProto has, to my knowledge, never undergone any security audits. It’s a roll-your-own-encryption, which is always dubious when you’re unwilling to have it audited. I would never suggest Telegram, even for cleartext communications.
Agreed, I will edit the comment
Signal, Matrix/Element, Wire
Maybe not wire, it’s not very widely used and the app is a bit meh
Signal. Though SimpleX is growing as a superior private messenger.
Lemmy
How? What? Why?
Comment sections and DM. Because you can and you should
Lemmy is not a WhatsApp alternative
Federation is the opposite of privacy
