Avoids Telegra, WhatsApp. Recommends Session, Signal, SimpleX, Threema.
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Which of these allow people to add me via telephone number, can run on multiple devices, has a wide array of animated stickers and has a great Material You design?
Sounds like the closest to what you want is Signal.
No material you, but in general the UX sucks.
Oh, that’s interesting, thanks for letting me know.
What about it sucks for you?
Signal is designed for and by a bunch of old men. It’s just not an app that makes being in it fun. Take the implementation of stories for example. Everyone else implemented them as a banner atop the message list, the Signal developers for example hid them away in a tab.
Adding new stickers in Telegram is as simple as open the sticker panel or select a sticker and get recommended stickers. In Signal I haven’t got a clue.
There’s no Material You implementation either.
No list of links.
No filename preservation for audio files.
It clearly serves a purpose and is good at that, but it doesn’t lend itself to being a good messenger for people that want more than privacy.
Thank you for explaining.
Whilst I can’t speak about the ages or genders of who it’s designed by, it’s probable that you’re at least somewhat correct. Compared to other actually secure apps I have to disagree but compared to all apps out there including ones that aren’t secure, I agree it probably isn’t as fun as them.
Yeah, the stories would be better up the top, as you say.
For stickers that are sent to you in Signal on Desktop and ipad OS at least, I can just click/press on a sticker and there’s a big Install button there, will test on Android in a bit, if you want to add new ones that haven’t been sent to you, I agree it’s a bit of a faff but you have to go here: https://signalstickers.org and you can install from there.
I do agree that not having to go to a separate website if a sticker hasn’t been sent to me and I haven’t got it installed already would be nice, I really think they are missing a major feature there.
I’m not sure why material you is important, would you mind explaining a bit more about that?
Yeah, a list of links would be very much helpful, most of the messengers I use are missing that and I wish they’d add that feature.
By “No filename preservation for audio files.” do you mean when you download it then it gets changed from its original name or something else?
Disagree to a degree at least compared to others on the recommended list, it at least has some features beyond just privacy. However, yeah, it could design them better and have more features that make the UX better.
Thank you for such a fair and balanced response. Amazing work.
I’m not sure why material you is important, would you mind explaining a bit more about that?
I enjoy homogenous design across my system. When I gave some of the FOSS alternate front ends to Telegram a try, it really taught me just how much it makes a difference. It’s such a tiny thing but it’s nice to have. It’s one of those things where it’s like the developer cared.
By “No filename preservation for audio files.” do you mean when you download it then it gets changed from its original name or something else?
So me and one of my friends send each other tracks all the time. In Signal they’re all listed as “Voice Message • Sent by XXXXX” it’s just not useful.
Thank you 🙂
Oh that makes sense. I use Linux and it’s really frustrating trying to get all programs etc to all look or work in the same ways sometimes. Especially the small number of closed source ones I use like Steam.
Oh yeah, I completely agree and wish Signal wouldn’t do that. I’ve noticed it for images too, I’m pretty sure.
Why should a text messenger be fun? It’s a communication tool, not a game…
The stickers accessed via the sticker button left of the textbox. You can add stickers by going to https://signalstickers.org and click on add stickers. And you can add them some way if you receive a new one from a contact.
What is a list of links? Links you have sent/recieved previously?
Why should a text messenger be fun? It’s a communication tool, not a game…
Because I enjoy speaking to friends, family and lovers and shouldn’t be forced to not enjoy it to make a bunch of old men happy.
The stickers accessed via the sticker button left of the textbox. You can add stickers by going to https://signalstickers.org and click on add stickers. And you can add them some way if you receive a new one from a contact.
Why isn’t this in the UI? Rhetorical question, goes back to old men. Signal is designed by the same type of people that clamour for phones with no front facing camera.
What is a list of links? Links you have sent/recieved previously?
Indeed.
Signal is designed for and by a bunch of old men.
Interesting bullet point for excluding an app.
It clearly serves a purpose and is good at that, but it doesn’t lend itself to being a good messenger for people that want more than privacy.
Maaaaybe because it’s focus is privacy, not bells and whistles.
Signal
Signal?
It’s single device
What do you mean? I’m running signal on my laptop, desktop, and phone.
From https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007320451-Troubleshooting-multiple-devices
Signal can only be used on one mobile device and up to five linked Signal Desktops.
So you know its not single device, yet still said it was?
I went back and edited my posts to be more clear
Using it across multiple android devices is a huge pain. We use telegram in our friend group so that tablet havers don’t have to jump through hoops.
Could someone explain why there is no mention of Element?
Matrix, for which Element is but one client, leaks a lot of metadata and is not at all simple to set up correctly. Would be my guess.
I use it myself but it can be a real pain and very confusing to newcomers and more experienced users alike.
Plus no one client can do everything yet, not even Element.
Calling on it isn’t finished yet and those operating their own servers have to install their own TURN servers which seems either too much of a daunting task, or too expensive considering no matrix server I use has one afaik.
They do. It just doesn’t work for them, but they aren’t opposed to it.
Matrix doesn’t offer disappearing messages (which I consider important for digital minimalism and cybersecurity. Even if the user chooses not to enable this feature, it should be an option). Again though, if you have a found a use case for these messengers and they appeal to you and you’re able to get the people you interact with using them, great!
I agree with avoiding Telegram and Whatsapp.
Session looks like its on its way out which I consider a good thing, it never seemed like a particularly stable project and involves some crypto trash and only ‘ultra secure’ people actually use it, no one I’d want to talk to. Not sure about its desktop client.
Signal imo is great, most people I’d want to talk to are on it, it has great features and no longer requires a phone number to talk to others ( though yeah, I know you have to in order to create an account). It also has great multi device support and they do fix things even if we have to keep at it until they do. It also has a great desktop client, even if they have to fix some security with it.
SimpleX could be good with more fun features like stickers etc, group calls and a better view on the ipad, at the moment it’s that ridiculous iphone on ipad view which they haven’t fixed for 2 years and counting. At the moment there’s nothing particularly interesting or useful about it apart from no usernames and that it functions as a basic secure messenger. Not sure about its desktop client.
Threema is very business orientated, you can tell that based on the few features it actually does have, it’s alright for calling and messaging but it has no proper multidevice using only one username support, you can make a new username for each device but that kind of defeats the purpose for me. I do enjoy that it allows you to explain each picture via text directly underneath it though. Its desktop client has no calling and is no longer on flatpak from what I can tell, locking those of us who don’t use a deb or rpm based system out of its latest client updates, sadly and it requires the device it connected to, to be on, connected at all times and have Threema open as the only app on the screen, which is ridiculous imo.
I really like simplex but there should be a way to easily migrate accounts to another device or add devices on an account.
The last time I tried it, I had to set up different accounts for each device I use to communicate which is less than ideal.
Oh, yuck, that is awful!
I completely agree that there should be a way to add more devices on an account.
