I use an iPhone and my fiancé uses Android. He is not very tech savvy. He does not like to text for privacy reasons. I was going to recommend we get Signal but see others in Lemmy talking about Matrix. Is that better? If so, what app is best that works on both our phones? Thanks Lemmy friends!
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We should all be using Signal, all of the time. It’s accessible to those not technically inclined, and I feel like that’s a requirement now if a personal-use technology wants to get off the ground.
Edit: this is not to detract from matrix, which seems like a great technology for privacy
One advantage of Matrix/Element over Signal is that it isn’t linked to your phone number… Much easier to use across platforms and when you change phones.
This is certainly a “pro.” However, I’ve never had an issue swapping phones with Signal. (I do lose my chat history, but I can’t remember if that’s my doing or if signal just can’t port history to a new device.)
I’m going to have to give Matrix a try. I’ve been seeing it mentioned a lot over the past week.
If you want to keep your history in Signal, you’ll need to backup your messages in a file, and restore your history on the new phone with the file (at least, it’s the easiest way I could find).
I prefer the account-based philosophy of Matrix over the phone-number one of Signal, but you mileage may vary.
Matrix (and Element, its mainly used client) is not without flaw of course, notably voice/video call works somewhat better in Signal in my experience.
Go with signal, it’s the right tool for your job. Matrix has its merits, but is less intuitive, less streamlined, and less polished then signal. For many use case these wouldn’t matter, but for you they do.
Signal is so easy, my grandparents are on it. They can’t attach a file on an email, but they can use signal.
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+1 to this, signal for the normal people in your life, matrix for the techies.
Signal is great for one on one conversations or small groups. Matrix is better served for communities as federation offers censorship resitance, but they collect some metadata that Signal doesn’t. They do have encrypted DMs, but it’s less user friendly than Signal and if your partner is not tech savvy, I would go with Signal.
Signal has 2 points of concern:
- Phone number requirement
- Centralized server (one point of failure)
I use both for different groups of people. E.g. My Matrix account is publically listed on my Lemmy account, but my Signal one is only given to people I trust to some level.
Phone number requirement is disappearing, username accounts are coming soon
I don’t think their are removing phone requirement, they will just add username support on top of it, so you can invite people using username, but still need phone to register an account.
Matrix IMO is more like a discord alternative. For private messaged I would use (and I do use) Signal. Its very easy to setup too and seems like the most reliable instant messenger.
You would need to host your own or join a matrix server. The benefit of Matrix is you can tie in puppets to things like iMessage, Discord, FB Messenger if you host it yourself. Another option is Beeper (Matrix + all the puppets for other messaging apps) but you still have to sign up and get an invite from them to join for now.
I use Matrix (Element client on iOS) with the extended family and it works well. Most of them are not tech-savvy. I self-host my own Matrix instance because I wanted to have control on where personal pictures were hosted.
And naturally, matrix is federated so you can join rooms of any other instance.
And if you don’t like the app you’re using, you can easily switch it without losing your data or making everyone else have to switch to the new app.
I’ve never bothered to try alternatives to Element. Are they worth trying ?
I would say they are absolutely worth trying. I’ve personally been alright with the look and feel of Element but there may be something in the other matrix apps that you enjoy more. FluffyChat is another popular one that I see mentioned a lot.
There is basically no issue with having multiple apps installed and signed in, the biggest hurdle is just signing into the app and then verifying it. Beyond that, it’s just customizing and feeling it out.
Just stick to signal, matrix can be used the same way but it’s a lot more complicated and requires involvement in keeping your backup key safe, otherwise you’ll lose every encrypted message! Signal is similar to whatsapp. (which is obviously…a popular app…which should already explain the simplicity of setting it up.)
If you want to turn a normie off secure messaging for life, give him matrix. The UX is completely horrid.
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If they’re not that tech savvy, though, you might also be expecting a lot if you want them to distinguish between client and server/service.
For the most part, they’re probably expecting the service to be the same app. Facebook is the Facebook app, Instagram is the Instagram app, so on.
Having multiple clients for the same thing might be a stretch, let alone having to find one that works and isn’t missing features and things.
Schildichat, which is a messenger for Matrix is rather easy to use. My wife and kids use it while I use Element.
I think element is pretty easy to use honestly.
I ditched signal after they reversed course and dropped support for SMS in the app for bullshit reasons. Who knows what other brain dead move they will try to pull next?
Why would you want SMS? It’s unencrypted and goes against the whole point of signal. I use QKSMS for SMS and it’s great at SMS.
Likely for the sake of only needing a single app. Both SMS and Signal messages (as well as similar apps) all use your phone number for receiving messages so why not view all of them in a single app? SMS apps are nearly always lightweight so storage isn’t really an issue but for some, having one less icon on the app drawer is a plus.
If privacy is the ultimate goal, I think Signal is a bit better.
That said, Signal is doing a bunch of user-unfriendly stuff that turns me off a bit. For example, they had a great SMS integration on Android that they’re now killing for no obvious reason. And more problematic- on iOS there is NO backup/restore functionality. None. So if you lose your phone, all your chat history is gone. It doesn’t backup to iCloud or anywhere else. The ONLY backup or transfer option is if you get a new phone you can transfer data from old to new.
Android has a full backup/restore function that backs everything up to an encrypted file. No idea why they don’t do the same on iOS.Matrix is also better for multiple device access. On Signal, you can connect additional devices (laptop etc) but they are always subservient to the main device. Conversation history doesn’t transfer from the main device to addon devices, although conversations stay in sync on both devices from the point you add the device forward. But if you get a new phone for example, that’s a new parent device, so your desktop convo history gets wiped.
Matrix on the other hand, no device is primary and conversation history is stored (encrypted) on the server. So backup your crypto key and you can access everything from any device (including a web browser).For Matrix- Element is the one to use most of the time…
I would think its NOT good privacy to backup it to icloud. As ANY backup. They probably do no backups, because it is unsafe to do so.
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Get Signal.
I have both and the synchronising of matrix keeps ages.
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