I’m looking for something to share images and videos between small family group. We use mix of android and apple. Text messages are terrible for images and videos.
We were using telegram, now I want to see what lemmy has to offer. Thank you in advance.
Signal ?
Thanks, I’ll check this out!
Signal is likely the best and easiest drop in.
Signal, hello?
So it seems.
Signal.
Thanks
I’d recommend Threema. It’s privacy focused, based in Switzerland. You don’t even need a phone number to create an account, they collect no data on you (claimed, but haven’t checked) and the code is open source, under A-GPL 3 license.
There’s a build for Apple and Android, for which you pay once.
I use this to talk with important family members.
Looking for a free solution.
I forgot to mention, it’s easy to use, as it’s similar to every other messenger app, so even not so techy members can use it.
I’ve been using Delta Chat for the last few weeks, its very similar to WhatsApp, but decentralised… Works very well, available on android & ios, definitely worth a look, as it could be good for your use case…
Nah, use Signal. It just works
Don’t you need to use your phone number to sign up?
No phone number required for DeltaChat.
It packetises and encrypts chats, using email(SMTP) as the transport medium. Can send downsampled pics, videos or Push-to-talk audio. Can send full quality pics, videos, or attachments too.
It’s on F-Droid, and you can use a seperate free email address(100MB limit) for the SMTP backend (from https://nine.testrun.org/ ), or use your own existing email address.
Elegant and robust.
Removed by mod
I’ll check it out.
Signal
What’s missing from the text and photos functionality of text messaging, that you need from this app?
Text messages drop quality of images and videos are terrible. Can’t do anything over 10 seconds.
Photo/video sharing will undergo re-encoding under some circumstances, like mixed Andoir/iOS groups
Signal was developed with financial backing by the CIA, so do with that information what you will. I use Teleguard which is very similar to Telegram but run out of Switzerland, and with 2-way encryption automatically enabled, unlike signal or telegram.
Yeah, but the response to that first part is “and?”
Open source, they’ve been audited, and there’s no sign of anything hinky.
Also, thanks for the teleguard info. Any opinion about features and function for those of us that haven’t run across it before?
I just installed teleguard because of this comment.
It’s run by SwissCows, they claim it’s fully encrypted with the latest/greatest tech, and comply with GDPR (and since they claim to not store user data, it’s pretty simple).
It’s simplistic in it’s setup (not really a criticism, just a description/observation). This seems to be because (they claim) no data is stored on their servers (messages transit,and are deleted upon delivery).
If you want to use another device simultaneously, you have to backup one device, then restore it to the new device (backup requires a password). They’ll then have the same history and will remain in sync, I think. So far I haven’t gotten the restore to work because both devices must run the exact same version, and the Windows version isn’t up to date.
I haven’t found documentation on where the backup is stored, but I suspect the restore process pulls the backup from the first device.
Edit: Sync works, I’m just an idiot. When it says use your ID, they mean the code, not your Nickname. 🤦🏼♂️
It seems to work well, did some voice and video calls between phone and laptop, sent files, etc.
Signal definitely has end to end encryption enabled by default
Do you have a source for the CIA backing claim? I can’t find anything substantiated with a quick ddg search.
Not heard that one before about the cia but let’s say for a moment that is true - Signal is open source so anyone can audit and work with the source code. Also anyone can set up an independent signal server and network.
And are you maybe confusing Signal with Tor and the CIA with the US Navy?