I made a spreadsheet that ranks messengers for privacy

I forgot Grindr DMs, but you already know that ones gonna be red all the way down lmao

Pls share with friends if you find it useful, I dont accept donations or anything, and it'll never have ads or bullshit.

I'm working on adding more services, but each one takes about 4 hours to research and review.

Signal really is that better replacement for WhatsApp since the functionality is identical, others would have to force people to get used to the different ui and the options.

I've been using Matrix for years, but now only as a replacement for IRC. The encryption key handling has always been cumbersome and flakey, and too easily broken by users. Not compromised "broken", but locked out "broken." It's been like this for years, and while the UI has improved, it's still too hard for casual users to confidently use; I've given up hope that it'll ever get to a point where I can recommend it to friends who don't give a fuck how it works, and who aren't interested in spending a half hour figuring out how to set things up - they just want it to work. So many encrypted messaging systems have done this correctly, I dispair that Matrix can't (it's a common issue with all clients, so I blame the design of the protocol).

Edit oh, I also wanted to say I'd also been disillusioned with Matrix when I realized I couldn't run my own server. That is, I technically could; I just couldn't afford to. Synapse is a hot mess of a server, but it also just pounds on the CPU and requires massive amounts of disk space (over time). Matrix is designed such that all content for channels joined by any user is replicated to the user's home server. It's a questionable design decison, at best, but a consequence is that regardless of the server software, the storage requirements make running a home server cost prohibative. Compared to, say, running an xmpp server, which could be done effectively on a Pi.

I made the mistake of getting my family to switch to Signal. It works great for messaging, but it has other issues—beyond the typical SIM-required complaint. I hate that you have to register with a ‘primary’ device on either iOS or Android fueling that duopoly (SoL if you are on a postmarketOS or KaiOS or Capyloon phone… or just don’t want a internet-capable phone). Notifications are sent thru Google’s FSM (news 1–2 months ago that of course Apple & Google send all the metadata to the feds) & refuse to support UnifiedPush (thank goodness the Molly fork does). They’re also not too happy to support alternative clients meaning you are stuck with the shitty, resource-sucking Electron client while not having a web client or native or TUI client. And the worst cherry on top is shipping those iOS emoji to Android & Linux …eww.

Working on it, hard to do well without JavaScript while maintaining the ease of webpage generation

RCS is a protocol, not a messenger. Google messages is the only client that implemented it.

Unless you know of any other RCS apps

Yes, please add Session. Wire is missing, too.

A version of this with usability features would be nice. Some of these I gave earnest tries, with multiple friends who were willing to indulge my interest, and the tools failed for various reasons: too cumbersome, too confusing, too unreliable, too basic. It's a subjective metric, but these are social tools, and to be useful, they have to be usable -- and many simply aren't.

I don't know if it's humorous, but one unexpected thing I discovered was that Wire's and Session's embedded animated GIF finder+inserter is so hugely desireable with my friends, it became an almost minimum requirement. Funny GIFs are immensely popular.

I have worked for Status in the past, but that has not impacted the review of any apps. The spreadsheet has been reviewed thoroughly by others in the privacy space before I published it, and I encourage everyone to take a look and report any inaccuracies.

The criteria is objective on purpose. Everything on the spreadsheet can be verified for accuracy.

Briar has even fewer N/As than SimpleX and all greens otherwise. Second column in the table.

SimpleX may be one of the best, privacy-wise, but until they implement multi-device support with shared history, it's simply a non-starter. Not being able to access a conversation on both my phone and my computer puts a messaging app near the bottom of any usability list.

SimpleX is close to implementing it; the last time I checked, there was a way to link two devices, but it was exceedingly cumbersome - too difficult to ask a non-tech person to work through - and the history syncing didn't work. If they get that worked out, it'll be a strong contender; I only wish it'd been part of the original design and not a tack-on, as I expect it'll consequently be a major source of bugs for the project.

You're not required to contribute. I went with GH because it doesn't require creating a new account on an obscure Git provider, which would kill the chwnces of anyone contributing.

Dino, Gajim turn on OMEMO by default & even the TUI Profanity prominently displays [unencrypted] in red at the top by default nudging you to pick OMEMO, OTR, or PGP for end-to-end encryption. The protocol is generic on purpose & meant to be extended with encryption which in the case of private chat applications, is now defacto. Much in the same way, TLS isn’t required since there are application that don’t require it, but defacto, all guides for setting up a XMPP server for chatting applications will suggest TLS where some servers have options like s2s TLS required or it won’t talk to the other server.

Seems weird that there’s a big, red no even when all the defaults point in the direction yes for human-to-human chat. Much in the same way some values are wrong like apps & servers being open source when there very much are proprietary XMPP servers out there like WhatsApp & Zoom. There’s also a reason Tails OS comes with Dino (or Pidgin) & every dark web guide explains how to connect to XMPP thru Tor + OMEMO/OTR, because it can be secure & anonymous enough for criminals & whistleblowers while being lightweight & decentralized.

Telegram was suddenly unblocked in Russia after getting a bunch of money from the Kremlin.

https://www.wired.com/story/the-kremlin-has-entered-the-chat/

The Moscow Times reported that the investments included $75 million from a joint partnership between an Abu Dhabi state fund and a Kremlin sovereign wealth fund.

where a person will have page after page of junk apps on their phones, yet utterly balks at the notion of installing a second messenger.

Ffs this drives me crazy.

I have a friend who bitches about SMS being shit, every.single.day.

But will they use another app? No. "I don't want to have to use different messaging apps". Oh, so what you're saying is you're OK with how shitty SMS is. So stop complaining.

Really, it's not like you don't already have 3 email accounts, and have had a few phone numbers. And your friends numbers have changed over the years too.

This is something you use all day, every day. Not hard to find a conversation - hell, both iOS and Android show you this on a per contact basis.

So I'm not sure what's really going on when people say this. There's some other weird mental thing happening.

They purposefully removed perfect forward secrecy, which is an important part of preventing future compromise in the chain of messages.

Please submit a GitHub issue so I can track the suggestions and problems, thanks

I don't think wire is the best privacy wise

There's Revolt (FOSS, functionally the same as Discord but it's centralised) and Matrix (FOSS and decentralised but it's somewhat functionally different than discord). Both have their pros and cons. You can look into them.

Adding to sibling… Discord is used in a couple of different ways at present for communities. If you mean voice coms for gaming or otherwise, Mumble should be in your repository. If it’s more of a of a Slack-like business chat, self-hosted Mattermost is actually pretty nice. If it’s just text chat, IRCv3 & XMPP have that covered & scale massively even on a home PC. If it’s voice calls, Jitsi or Jami can work. If you are posting updates or things that should be forum topics, you shouldn’t be using chat anyways where Mastodon, Misskey, Lemmy, & other Fediverse options or even Atom feeds can suffice. If you want integrated chat, community updates/posts, voice/video calls (unsure if conference calls are support) Movim is a good option--and if you don’t mind the rough UI edges, Libervia can do similar but also integrates a calendar for events. Bear in mind as well that a lot of these technologies can be bridged between one another to avoid some of the lock-in, but I would hesitate to force everyone’s chat to be piped & logged thru Discord’s servers. It’s also not bad to say “we use these 2 services” rather than requiring a kitchen sink communications application.