• Kevin@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Signal works. The adoption is fairly slow, but I’ve had friends slowly begin to use it.

      • ono@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Signal gets some things right, but others wrong, such as phone numbers and centralized architecture. As such, it doesn’t fit the “everybody wants to use” part.

        • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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          7 months ago

          Plus the arbitrary requirement of a mobile device as a primary, so it would be either inconvenient Signal-cli or something like Waydroid.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        My biggest problem with Signal is how much battery it uses when you don’t have Google services on your phone.

        It easily uses 30-40% of my battery compared to the rest.

      • Nithanim@programming.dev
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        7 months ago

        My problem is that it does not work on multiple devices at the same time, so I have personally given up on it. Maybe it has changed, did not check for a long time.

        • shrugal@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          It works everywhere except Android tablets, and you can just use Molly for that.

      • Anonymouse@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Signal is great. I miss when it worked with SMS. There are 2 E2EE SMS apps that I’m aware of, bit one is not well supported and the other needs quite a bit of UI work before it’s usable by the general public. Also, neither can be used as the default SMS app on Apple phones,but that’s not the app’s fault.

    • LainOfTheWired@lemy.lol
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      7 months ago

      We got reasonably close with signal, but I know what you mean. I’ve had friends think I was some sort of escaped convict just because I’d rather use Matrix to chat instead of FB.

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      Signal feels the closest, it’s basically equivalent to other messaging apps. Somewhat cleaner and easier to use IMO

      The only downside is chat backups for people coming from Messenger, in particular those on iOS devices. Streamlining that process might get me to go “contact me on signal, I don’t check messenger often”, but right now I get why there’s a last bit of friction with my friends

      WhatsApp has a similar limitation but they walk you through the backups process. Even then, they limit backups to google drive iirc. Signal could do something similar, but much better by explaining the process and opening up backup locations

    • Corroded@leminal.space
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      7 months ago

      Some of the hurtles I’ve encountered using privacy focused chat apps with friends and family is the lack of smooth group chats and adding people remotely.

      Some apps have a QR code feature but also allow you to enter a code. It can be a challenge to setup with older family members.

      • wincing_nucleus073@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        boomers will always complain and cry.

        in their minds, they should be able to buy a device and when they open it up, it should already come pre-installed with their granddaughter’s name and contact ready to go through a mind reading technology that knows that knows who bought the device and knows who exactly they want to talk to and when.

        Star Trek on steroids or something idk.

    • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      The problem here is that a really private application would be p2p over i2p/TOR, but with people behind CG-NAT that is becoming quite troublesome