I am really fed up with WhatsApp (closed source, jurisdiction that may impose backdoors soon)

I would even try to convince friends and family to move to something else but to what?

Signal so far has been the obvious choice but the fear that they may impose backdoors becomes more and more concrete.

Threema seems great! But they want 3€ and there is no chance in hell that my friends and family would pay it.

I saw a bunch of options on https://european-alternatives.eu/category/instant-messaging-apps but I would like to gather experiences and opinions

  • HotCoffee@lemm.ee
    3·
    4 days ago

    SimpleX-Chat. It’s not as streamlined as Signal for onboarding new users, aka convincing your friend and families. But most things work fine, chatting, calling and filesharing. It’s completely anonymous, as in that you don’t need to register with a phonenumber and or username. You can also self-host and use your own server if you are into that.

    The more users it gets, the more investment it will have and become better. A fellow lemming also recommended Briar, but not familiar with it. Privacy enthusiasts also enjoy Matrix so also check that out.