this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Privacy

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cross-posted from: https://monero.town/post/934733

SimpleX Chat

Private and Secure messaging platform without user IDs

Will this new messenger replace Signal?

Watch on Youtube

by Evgeny Poberezkin

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I think they serve different (though related or overlapping) purposes.

Briar started (IIRC) as a Bluetooth-only comm tool, and they've done a great job expanding what it can do (think it does Tor now?). Briar is not battery friendly, and the devs will tell you so. I don't consider it a daily driver, but rather for specific circumstances. I keep it around just-in-case.

SimpleX is more of a daily driver since it's a more conventional IP networking app, though it's a little battery hungry too.

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

Yeah, you are right, I just think SimpleX is not for me as I already use many Matrix chat even for work stuff and collaborations (group chats), and I'm not sure if I can do the same or chat daily with my team as I do on Matrix. And I just hope and have faith that they will fix those metadata issues:

https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/660
https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/549

But can take long, for now I am not worried at all.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yea, it's a different tool. And it's still early days.

I don't use SimpleX as a daily driver, yet. But it has a lot potential. Just glad to see another tool out there, and the devs seem really earnest (I worked with them a year ago while testing the app).

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

I should give it a try, but not sure if I will be able to talk with anyone... I don't really have friends that care about privacy... 😢

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

Lol, welcome to the club!

God how I despise SMS, and I can't get anyone off it, even if other options are easier to use than SMS, much more robust, faster, more flexible, etc.

There are a couple messaging apps that are self-hostable (like I believe SimpleX is). Litewire is one. At some point I plan on hosting one myself, and preconfigure accounts for friends/family to make it even easier for them. Maybe that will get them on board.

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

Yeah, and I first need to get friends... such a hard work... physical world isn't for me...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Lol, there is that problem. One thing at a time...

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

My main concern wit Briar is that it would be of not much use without a smartphone (I meant the internet-less features in particular). I would not trust sensitive things to a smartphone. I wonder if soemthing like that could be doable with an Android VM or Waydroid with a laptop's bluetooth...

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

Maybe. Check out Android Subsystem for Windows. It's essentially an Android VM though you don't have a launcher/home screen. You just see the apps in your task bar like any windows app. I run it on an older laptop, it's a touch slow but works well enough.

https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Windows is as much of a spyware as an average smartphone though, so not much of a point.

Edit: I should try it in Waydroid then.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Lol, true. I just assume most people are using it.

I'm working on getting away from it, been stuck on fining a OneNote replacement.