Signal is a secure messenger that is widely touted as one of the best options. This Signal review shows you the pros and cons.
"When you use Signal, your data is stored in encrypted form on your devices. The only information that is stored on the Signal servers for each account is the phone number you registered with, the date and time you joined the service, and the date you last logged on."
This isn't an ad, I wasn't paid for this post. Just to clear the air: fuck facebook, fuck elon musk and twitter, fuck anyone who thinks this is a paid advertisement. I wish I was paid for this shit, I just wanted to spread the word. Thank you. 😀 👍
I've been trying to get my wife to use signal for ages and she won't budge. She won't budge because she doesn't want to install another app that from her perspective does the same thing as texting (she's not as privacy conscious as I am and doesn't really care that signal encrypts missages). Lately I've been trying to sell signal as mre reliable since my work office has shit cell reception and once in a while messages will git completely lost in the aether. Signal is more featurefull than sms/mms imho.
My sister, her husband, and one of my friends use signal so there's that.
Ultimately I'd probably prefer everyone use matrix but it's not as accesible as signal.
I laughed at your "...she doesn't want to install another app...". I have a close friend that told me the same thing.
I was able to convince my sister to install Signal so that we could more securely send financial receipts back and forth, etc.
More than one of you in this thread have mentioned Matrix. I realized I signed up for it during the Great Migration about 3 weeks ago, but I haven't spent any time there yet. How is it the same/different/better than whatever else? Curious. (I suppose Google might be my friend in this situation.)
It's federated like mastodon/lemmy (and might interoperate but idk). It doesn't require a phone number. I don't use it a ton but like that it's decentralized.
Maybe you could try to convince through other features, like sending sharper images, videos, audio messages or video calling etc.
If you get closer with her friend circle (or if she gets closer to your friend circle), you could propose to make a group chat, where you can keep each other up to date or plan future activities together. Your wife will probably not want to miss out on that.
Don't talk about encryption or security to normal people, who are not into tech. They do not care. Only talk about features, that they can actually use, and only in situations were this would be useful. Don't be preachy about your messenger use, don't make them feel stupid.