I see a lot of down votes and conflict in privacy communities about which one is the best, but tbh, if you’re not using fb/sms/email you’re pretty much the top 1% of privacy users. So as far as we should be concerned, that’s good enough.
The debates about signal being better than matrix etc are fine to have, but IMO it’d be more productive if we spoke more about how to get granny, the boss, the nephew, etc on signal, matrix etc. Doesn’t matter how good any of our privacy apps are, I almost never meet a single person who uses any of them and have to default to fb. Most people over yonder haven’t even heard of the apps that aren’t telegram or signal.
IMO targeting the discorders(/telegramers) is the lowest hanging fruit. Discord/tg is already bridge compatible with matrix, if you can use LibreOffice, you can set up the t2bot discord-matrix bridge.
One thing I believe would at least help a little to increase adoption of alternative platforms would be to (and I know this is kind of problematic) learn a thing or two from the Windows 11 approach with the Teams integration.
The two biggest DEs for desktop Linux each have their own Matrix client (NeoChat for KDE and Fractal for GNOME), and I think it’d be a nice idea if they shipped them by default with the system and added some optional integration with the system. That said, I haven’t used KDE in a while to be sure if they already do so tho, so my focus would be on GNOME. For instance, in the “online accounts” section there could be a Matrix login option that automatically logs your account in whenever you install another Matrix client, for example. Other nice to have would be to be able to have Fractal have its own native “appindicator” for users to be able to have it running in the background in a more seamless way (since GNOME doesn’t support those out of the box).
XMPP would also be an ok option, but the focus here is on the UX/UI more than the privacy/usability of the protocol itself, and in both of these aspects the Matrix clients are way more polished than any XMPP alternative.
But yeah, any platform out of those is fine.
You bring up a nice point. It would be indeed really neat to have the DEs integrate better with Matrix and other platforms.
This is how I feel about Linux. It does not really matter which one is best, the first step is to just get people to use it… if they are able to.
Messaging apps are even easier since people can use as many as they want at the same time. I regularly use 5-6 different messaging apps. I use at least 2-3 daily.
My girlfriend almost never used my matrix server until I set it up on her new phone. To my surprise she called me from it the other week when she was visiting her mother.
So like Microsoft teams, maybe it will be best to just set these up on our families phones and friends who are willing and just start using it. I was once told that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Matrix is more like a mix between IRC and messaging apps(child of SMS style) I think is actually a lot more IRC alike than single SMS
maybe it will be best to just set these up on our families phones and friends who are willing and just start using it.
this works very well i’ve heard for signal android
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2nd this.
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Delta chat for a modern messaging app like feel and e2ee over email infrastructure. Basically e2ee chat over email. It uses autocrypt for e2ee
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Use k9 mail(android) or thundebird(PC) as they also provide e2ee among all autocrypt clients.
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Love the overall tone of your post, thanks for bringing an atmosphere of cooperative work instead of religious wars.
I think there is a balance between being friendly, open-minded, and pragmatic on one hand, while still being able to keep high expectations to keep pushing the projects we love and support in the right direction.
A simple example of what I mean is my position is of course Signal. I have many reasons to heavily criticize it, the first one for me being their obsession with centralization, refusing any federated model. To my eyes, this is a massive concern. But still, when I am asked advises on which messaging app to use for a group of friend, that are a little mindful about their privacy, while not being tech savvy at all, I talk about Signal (alongside Matrix or XMPP). Does that mean I am absolutely sold to it ? No ! Does it mean I will recommend matrix forever no matter what ? Of course not !
The context matters. If the whole world was on Signal, I would actively fight against it. But the thing is : the whole world is one Facebook. And I see little reason not to wish they were on Signal instead !
My point is : between people that care and are passionate about this sort of things, let’s have constructive debate and criticize the different alternatives, each other, and ourselves. But let’s keep in mind that we are in this together with people that won’t want (and legitimately so) to spend that much energy on those debates, and that being elitists assholes won’t help.
P.S. : Privacy is mostly a collective issue. I’m an anti-Facebook purist asshole, with no account. But there are pictures of me, anyway, comments about me and my life probably all around. If you want to be an efficient solo purist, you’d better stop talking to anyone, and doing anything social.
Thanks, I agree, you’re doing good as well.
Every step away from Big Tech, especially GAFAM, is a step in the right direction.
1000% based af.
Signal is okay as much as privacy is concerned, but it doesn’t solve all the problems with communications in real world. For instance its centralized design means it can be easily blocked, a private Matrix server on the other hand will not even make it on the radar.
While this might be true, I think it’s missing the point that op was trying to make. What’s the benefit of knowing which service is the MOST private if nobody is using them anyway? Our focus should be on growing the use of private apps
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Agreed! I could only convince a few people to use them but that’s better than none!
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Well I guess I’ll have to stop reading Japanese comics /s
Yeah I had to do a double take on this. what does our beloved manga has to do with anything. dayum fb ruined one more thing by changing its name. this not fair guys we need to figure out somthing else to dis big tech.
here i am trying my normie friends to read manga and when they’ll see MANGA memes it would be so confusing.
My position is the following: If you want to contact me, you have Signal or Email. My family is on Signal, my friends are too. If you can’t be bothered to use anything else than Whatsapp to reach out to me, then we don’t need to keep in touch.
Agree with all points, but sorry not leaving discord for something half-baked as Matrix (That bot genuinely seems good), or Telegram for something featureless as Signal. Privacy is important so long as it also is convenient. Granny isn’t abandoning facebook til everyone she knows has, that’s how things work, unfortunately.
Just curious as I have not looked into it yet, but have you looked into a matrix-discord bridge?
I’ve completely ditched Discord because it feels like a dteriorating software, basically my only messaging app currently is Telegram because Matrix itself is not ready for what i wanted to use it for
Not sure why you’ve been downvoted when your points make perfect sense. Matrix has been developing really fast but the experience unfortunately still feels kinda half-baked (specially if you use stuff other than Element).
Signal and Telegram on the other hand, I see why some people wouldn’t make the switch, but Signal is polished just enough to be more than good enough for most people.
