Hi,
There is now a Signal fork with the specific aim of building a network of federated, independent servers: https://github.com/CableIM
here is some info from github:
Cable is an encrypted instant messaging and voice calling application for Android. It uses the Internet to send one-to-one and group messages, which can include images and video messages, and make one-to-one voice calls. Cable uses standard phone numbers as identifiers and end-to-end encryption to secure all communications to other Cable users.
Cable is based on Signal, but has some different goals.
This is not a company or a startup, it’s a project.
The problems with Signal
These are the limitation of Signal this project tries to address:
Signal is a centralized service, run by a single entity: Open Whisper Systems. Cable aims to build a network of federated, independent servers.
The Signal client has some proprietary dependencies, these are removed in Cable.
Signal users Amazon S3 to store encrypted attachments. While everything is always end-to-end encrypted, we avoid Amazon and prefer self-hosted or noncommercial solutions.
Signal is not friendly towards third-party clients using their servers, Cable is.
Maybe it worth to integrate something like this in eOS?
What do you think?
Yepp, it’s all outdated and why should ut or others included in eOS ? Less default apps are better than to much. Everyone is able to install what he wants/needs. So no need for default apps.
It would be nice to have a personal usage focus fork of Wire (the company behind Wire wants to make it an enterprise messenger). I’m not sure if it’s even possible, although Wire is open source (server/client).
@Rik
I’ve been trying Riot with Synapse for a while an my goal was to use the WhatsApp bridge.
What frustrated me was that the bridge kept desconnecting from WhatsApp Web API.
I cannot dump WhatsApp because it is the most used IM here in Brazil and that includes all my family. With Riot, Synapse and the Mautrix bridge I taught I could manage to not have WA installed on my phone.
And the Riot app freezes when you use it to audio/video calls. I tested with Android 8 in a Motorola G7.
I have plans to give it another shot in the next year though.
alright- yeah the bridges are not always stable imo. The Telegram bridge works well though.
Perhaps use Whatsapp and RiotX both for now? But i do like that RiotX is a good messenger, is federated + actively seeks to produce and support bridges with other messaging platforms
There’s a way to use the Mautrix WhatsApp in an AVM (Android Virtual Machine) which I could manage from anywhere using some TeamViewer alike program hence I wouldn’t need the WA on my phone anymore.
Since I rarely use WA for audio/video calls, whenever I want something like that I’d might use my current solution, Nextcloud Talk, running on my own home server.
Well, maybe I’ll give it a try.
Thanks for the tip.
I know nothing about the topic of Whatsapp alternatives but if one of the solutions that I see mentioned in this topic among others are starting to be manageable by the general public (me included) I would love to see a How-To guide for it.
At this point of time I’d say there is only Signal manageable by the general public (unfortunately). Wire was supposedly sold to the US, Matrix/Riot is too complicated, xmpp even more. I have hopes for Jami though.
Actually it would be nice to see a crowdfunding campaign for something useful like Jami, not for silly things like that Volla phone.
I’m slowly converting alot of friends and family around me to Jami… Plus you can also help them grow through different ways here. https://jami.net/contribute/
