Signal is to privacy what duct tape is to a broken item - it solves your issues and concerns, but you shouldn't expect it to last. Instead, consider Matrix.
I daily drove Matrix for a while and honestly, the UI/UX isn’t so good. Signal is the only platform I can reasonably get people on, and it’s just a better user experience (stickers, nice look, fast messages, link previews, etc.).
I’m honestly sick of people saying some alternatives are great for everyone when they still have work to do, you can’t even easily make encrypted groupchats on there. So much fragmentation, so little polish - still love the devs but like, be realistic
I imagine when someone says Matrix and “UX/UI isn’t good” they usually mean Element, which is the most popular of the multiple clients available (one example being Fluffychat which I hear is somewhat simpler in UX), but choice of client usually doesn’t fix fundamental problems with the protocol itself, so pick your poison.
On the bright side, it seems the Element team recently started really picking up on the complaints yearning for a good fix-up of the Element UX, so the original issue itself might change up soon.
you can’t even easily do encrypted groupchats on there
I’m curious about this. You’re not the first one to say this, but it’s been the complete opposite experience for me. The “Create room” dialog has encryption enabled by default. All group chats I’ve been in (where there aren’t any bridge bots to other services) work perfectly well with encryption enabled.
I agree the UI/UX sucks though. I’ve been waiting for it to get better for a while but lately I’ve been considering just moving to Telegram.
Right now I’m using Signal for people I personally know and Matrix for some big communities (it’s fine for that). I wouldn’t recommend Telegram because of privacy concerns, though it definitely does have the advantage of a large userbase. But I think Signal has a comparable UI/UX to Telegram so it’s worth making it work
a better user experience (stickers, nice look, fast messages, link previews, etc.). I’m honestly sick of people saying some alternatives a
Hard agree. Additional some of his points don’t make sense, like his stance on “what if a better app ever appears” - like, who cares? If there’s a significantly better app, suggest it, if there isn’t, why caution people about something that doesn’t exist?
He also brings up the point about LibreSignal being shut down by Moxie but doesn’t bring up the fact there are 3rd party clients that exist, which the devs are aware about, but haven’t been shut down/blocked and its been years.
I daily drove Matrix for a while and honestly, the UI/UX isn’t so good. Signal is the only platform I can reasonably get people on, and it’s just a better user experience (stickers, nice look, fast messages, link previews, etc.).
I’m honestly sick of people saying some alternatives are great for everyone when they still have work to do, you can’t even easily make encrypted groupchats on there. So much fragmentation, so little polish - still love the devs but like, be realistic
I imagine when someone says Matrix and “UX/UI isn’t good” they usually mean Element, which is the most popular of the multiple clients available (one example being Fluffychat which I hear is somewhat simpler in UX), but choice of client usually doesn’t fix fundamental problems with the protocol itself, so pick your poison.
On the bright side, it seems the Element team recently started really picking up on the complaints yearning for a good fix-up of the Element UX, so the original issue itself might change up soon.
I’m curious about this. You’re not the first one to say this, but it’s been the complete opposite experience for me. The “Create room” dialog has encryption enabled by default. All group chats I’ve been in (where there aren’t any bridge bots to other services) work perfectly well with encryption enabled.
I agree the UI/UX sucks though. I’ve been waiting for it to get better for a while but lately I’ve been considering just moving to Telegram.
Right now I’m using Signal for people I personally know and Matrix for some big communities (it’s fine for that). I wouldn’t recommend Telegram because of privacy concerns, though it definitely does have the advantage of a large userbase. But I think Signal has a comparable UI/UX to Telegram so it’s worth making it work
He also brings up the point about LibreSignal being shut down by Moxie but doesn’t bring up the fact there are 3rd party clients that exist, which the devs are aware about, but haven’t been shut down/blocked and its been years.
Anyways, I would disagree with the message as Signal is currently the best private and cross-platform SMS/text replacement available.