this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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Is anyone here aware of some alternatives to mentioned instant messaging applications ? Alot of people keep mentioning Signal , however since it is US based I am not going to entertain it as a possibility.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Why does it matter that Signal is US based? They don't get any of your data. And you don't have to donate if you don't want to.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 hours ago

I agree. If anything, Signal was made to circumvent government spying. So it's ANTI-US Gov.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 12 hours ago (4 children)

Try out the either Element or Fluffychat. Both based on decentralized, privacy, and security. Both based on Matrix. I like Fluffychat for ease of use and it’s on all devices. Plus you have to verify every device that signs in or that new device can not see previous chats as they stay encrypted.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I also use Fluffychat and I’m pretty satisfied. But it has its own “quirks”. I would say it’s slightly more buggy than I would expect. And I’m mostly missing the function for pasting of images from mobile device’s clipboard. It’s still doable, but in a somehow convoluted way. But once I got familiar with it, I’m liking it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

One of the latest updates allow you to use the Share button to directly post to Fluffychat. But I do agree with quirks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Yep, that’s what I meant by convoluted. It’s: Share -> Fluffychat -> Click on Post

Then Fluffychat opens with a popup where you select the respective chat and click on Forward. And then click on Send in new popup. It’s not a catastrophe, but I can definitely imagine less steps for that :)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It's not just "based on". Element and Fluffychat are two clients that use Matrix and are fully interoperable.

(I'm sure you know, but I'm not sure it's obvious for potential newcomers)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

Tue. Sorry, bit sleepy while responding doesn’t help.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Matrix is terrible for privacy. It shares more metadata with the servers than any other messenger.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

From which year is that claim?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Today. Matrix does not encrypt your metadata like Signal does. The server can easily build a social tree.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The Signal server and a Matrix server, of course, have the same metadata visibility.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

No they don't. Signal does not get any metadata. Matrix servers get everything and more than any other messenger. Not even the profile picture is encrypt with Matrix.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

Yeah no, that's not how it works. The closed source Signal server by definition gets the meta data on your chats. It's simply needed for it to do its job. When receiving the encrypted message contents the Signal server, at the moment of the IP connection, knows the identity of the sending party. It also must know the identity of the receiving party, else it would be very difficult to make sure the message reaches them.

That's the user graph right there. Now Signal says they don't log it, and I'm sure they don't (here's where you look up what a National Security Letter is btw). If I run my own Matrix server for me and my friends, I can prove that it doesn't log.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

I highly suggest getting third party reviews instead of competitor reviews which are ALWAYS SLANTED. Not to mention Matrix based like Element and Fluffychat are Open Source. Unlike Signal. Not to mention Signal provided info to US authorities fairly recently.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Sounds great, thanks for the tip

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

You are most welcome. I tried a lot of various messengers and these were the only ones that seemed to fit the extreme security we need in age of fascism.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

Exactly .. Element looks really good ... Now is the time to bully everyone around me to ditch the US shite and join me over there haha

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 hours ago

Element.io is a great option if you can get your circle to sign up

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

That is great Comparison.. thanks alot.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago

Threema is swiss

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

I've been using SimpleX, and I like it a lot. Very polished and reliable. The company is registered in the UK.

[–] Jagget 5 points 11 hours ago

Delta Chat! Mostly Germany based, email protocol PGP encrypted messenger

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

I've heard about https://docs.cwtch.im/, but haven't tried it. It does seem to take privacy very seriously.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I've heard of Session, though I haven't actually tried it out yet. It's Swiss.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

That's not quite true, is it? There's some criticism, from what I can see, but from there to "it's not secure" is a bit of a leap. They even moved out of Australia to avoid the backdoor requirements; they clearly care, to some extent, at least.