My niece has an old iphone with no SIM/phone number. Only wifi internet access.
Looking for an app for both of us to be able to chat
She cant chat with me over signal because no phonee number. She chats with the rest of the family over imessage, but i have an android phone
Is there an app available for both android and iphone to let me chat with her?
Thanks
jisti, nextcloud talk, element matrix …go big: IRC
Would be so cool if my kids and nieces/nephews used IRC!!
WTH dude… You can send letters. Unfortunately it’s IRL only and isn’t at all what you asked for
Briar fits the requirements.
No need for sms. Works over the internet, wifi only, or Bluetooth. As long as everyone has android it’s a great option.
That being said simplex is probably the right answer here, but no reason to antagonize the person who suggested a valid option.
How can it be a vild option when it is only available on android and the reason why OP is having this issue, is that the niece is in an iPhone?
That’s a very cogent message, thank you for writing it. I now understand your concern. I had missed the iphone requirement
Telegram will allow her to use a virtual number
Telegram isn’t private. Their privacy practices align more closely to Facebook than Signal.
Sorry, I didn’t know
https://simplex.chat/ is probably the best option today
The app is great and the server is very easy to self host.
Jabber (XMPP) or Matrix/Element.
Conversations on Android and Siskin on iOS.
One non-techie parent has Siskin running on their iPhone and it hasn’t skipped a beat in years of messaging using omemo-encrypted XMPP. For servers, they’re on tigase.im and I’m on conversations.im.
Here’s a guide on optimum siskin settings; I don’t know if defaults are better now or not.
Conversations.im is free on fdroid but it’s well worth paying something to the developer directly.
Https://snikket.org will get you started with XMPP easily.
I don’t want to assume the worst but why are you trying to privately communicate with a minor? You really should include a second adult preferably there parent.
You are just asking for trouble
Hehehehe, how we came here, if somebody wants to message their niece that doesn’t have a sim card then that somebody is doing something bad 😆
(Sarcasm) 100% somebody isn’t using SMS or fb messanger that somebody is a terrorist, extremist, child abuser, and drug user
C’mon, somebody is asking for software advice, just mentioning that it would be cool to educate the kids how to use private services
And even if somebody might be doing something shady, you can’t really accuse or suspect somebody, this is really dark of you to suspect everyone around you and starting a witch hunt 😂😂😂
I’d say the same thing about SMS or any other communication including in person. If you always keep two adults present you are much less likely to have problems
Idk, sounds really dark, not trusing your family is really dystopian
Its just a matter of policy. It doesn’t need to be that dystopian as all your doing is closing potential opportunity.
why are you trying to privately communicate with a minor?
Uhm… Because my niece asked me yesterday if she could message me on her phone.
When i say “private” i mean not hosted/harvested by facebook or google or whatever.
My brother has full acess to the device and can read our messages. Also, he is well aware that she is messaging her aunts and uncles
I don’t want to assume the worst
Proceeds to assume the absolute worst
Child abuse is a serious issue in the US. I always try to encourage good practices. I didn’t mean to accuse you of doing something unethical
I would still encourage getting the parents to join the same chat just for liability reason. If the child’s parent is in the group chat the risks go way down.
You can create a new group chat in Simplex Chat and then you can turn off disappearing messages and add the child and the parent.
That is very bad advice for people knowing and trusting each other.
Abuse almost always comes from a person who is trusted by the family. Often they are a close friend.
Trust but verify
I’ve used a self hosted Nextcloud for that. It’s not great but it worked well enough that I didn’t bother looking for better alternatives. I’m sure there are more options out there.
Hmmmm… I already have a nextcloud instance running… This is probably the most frictionless option for me…
I’ll look into NC talk on iphone for her. Thanks!
Matrix / element
To expand with my personal experience, I self host a synapse server partly for the reason that i want my children (aged 8-14 now) to have a communication platform they can access to get ahold of me with out requireing a sim card. I do not federate, and i do not allow account sign ups. That keeps a pretty isolated instance while still allowing everyone on that homeserver to be able to talk to each other.
I help them get Element setup on each device. I dont think this is overly complicated, but i am sure i am a horrible judge of complexity… They have to enter the url of the server, then their password, then they need to scan a qr code/verify from an existing device. Or, they need to enter a second passcode to verify their identity. I help them keep those secrets in bitwarden, so imo, that complexity is an opportunity to explain some opsec and encryption!
This
That gets really complicated with room keys and stuff though. So it’s not particularly user friendly.
Signal is no longer requiring phone numbers as of V7, so you could just wait for that to get released.
Still need a phone number to register. Then after that, you can give out your username to others without revealing your phone number
“I remember my uncle, he used to force us to use some janky app to talk to him because he was afraid of the big corporations spying on him”
Except they literally do. It’s even acknowledged in the mainstream media.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/technology/snowden-spying-big-tech.html
What’s frightening is that people more or less agree with this, but they have apathy to the point of making up excuses for it. Humanity is remarkably adaptable, and if they can adapt to supporting slavery or genocide, they will and they still do. Never mind things that are less terrible.
Sadly, I agree.
Oh so that’s why you don’t have a brain chip lma… (wait 5 seconds to skip ad)… o
FYI, last week someone saw that Signal merged in code for username (no phone number) support. So it might not be long until you see a beta release which allows you to sign up without a phone number.
You can use a voip/sms service to register with the traditional messaging apps: signal, telegram, etc
I.e. google voice, or https://kycnot.me/search?q=sms&type=
Though I think :
Matrix, simplex, and briar are good options that don’t need sms at all
SimpleX.
Matrix would be good ig.
I’m aware of the community this is posted in, but my kid talks to her grandparents via the chat features in Google photos. Works over WiFi with specific contacts and no phone number required. It lets her show them pictures she’s drawn.
Google are involved of course, but there’s no algorithm pushing promoted posts or any of that BSWow, I am so so much against your suggestion, but I have to upvote you, for your bravery.
To add something constructive: The app Element as a Matrix client works good for me.
