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.

  • fieryhamster@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    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.

    • Vlado@feddit.org
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      5 hours ago

      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.

      • fieryhamster@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

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

        • Vlado@feddit.org
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          4 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 :)

    • troed@fedia.io
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      8 hours ago

      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)

      • fieryhamster@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        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.

        • Bondar@lemmy.worldOP
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          8 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

    • doodledup@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

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

        • doodledup@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

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

          • troed@fedia.io
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            5 hours ago

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

            • doodledup@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              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.

              • troed@fedia.io
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                1 hour 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.

              • fieryhamster@lemmy.world
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                5 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.