My #1 recommandation for messenger, as the day of today
Just a post to say the goods of using SimpleX instead of others "private" messenger.
First it doesn't not require any id, phone number, etc... Can create how many accounts that you want!
Decentralized servers, everyone can run and use own servers, and communicate with others!
Big privacy side! Look at this one of the best https://privacyspreadsheet.com/messaging-apps.
The only negative is the usability of the app, this is why it needs support and be democratize to gain attraits to people, and maybe one day be one the most used messenger app...
Simplex is pretty nice, but to me XMPP already does all that you described, and metadata isn't that important to me. Plus XMPP has better clients for mobile and desktop
but why isnt it secure?
if you know that the other person is using the same version of omemo it is secure. and if you are self-hosting it, meta-data is no issue either
My battery life & ability self-host on low-spec hardware is pretty convenient. When I talk to my bud on their own self-hosted, low-spec instance, the TLS+OMEMO is pretty secure since we don’t have to trust some third-party server provider with data/metadata.
Then keep using it. However, no one else is using in my experience and there so many apps and servers I can't keep it all straight. Not user friendly at all.
If you like and have people using it then that's fine but I wouldn't start using in 2024. There are much nicer systems.
This speadsheet desperately needs the first column and row anchored, it's unreadable as is because you can't see what you're looking at.
As far as users go, add the features people are used to from Telegram and other messengers, and make it just as easy to use and it'll probably start pulling in more people. A big one IMO is good discoverability; like an easy to remember username that I can share, and ability to pull in my contacts and automatically add people who are already on it. As well as good group chat and channel support with good moderation tools.
Some things would be easy to improve on too, Telegrams sticker packs for example are a bit of a pain to update, so adding that feature but making it better would be nice.
Also easy sync to other devices without needing to manually backup/restore chats would be a huge plus for any of the alternative messenger apps.
That rules it out for me then. I like to use XMPP+OMEMO with about 4-5 clients which I can continue a conversation with at any time. Main mobile, tablet, desktop, other desktop, and backup mobile which is usually switched off. (Even if a device has been missing for too long and run out of OMEMO keys, the keys sync up again once I send a message with it.)