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Security people recommend Signal a lot (e.g. https://medium.com/@thegrugq/signal-intelligence-free-for-all-5993c2f72f90 https://medium.com/@thegrugq/signal-inte

Security people recommend Signal a lot (e.g. https://medium.com/@thegrugq/signal-intelligence-free-for-all-5993c2f72f90 https://medium.com/@thegrugq/signal-intelligence-free-for-al..., Snowden uses it and repeatedly recommended it: https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/661313394906161152 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/661313394906161152, ...). Personally, I use it all the time and it's nice. Most of the initial problems have been sorted out, so I encourage anyone who's had trouble with it before to try it out again. It has text (one-on-one and groups) and voice calls. Things that could use improvement: group management, switching to a new device. It doesn't have some of the features some people like (stickers and whatnot), but personally I don't care much about those. Video calls would also be nice.

pmlnr 10y ago
Encrypted video calls will crush mobile CPUs in my opinion, but indeed it would be nice to have one.
- krrrh 10y ago
  I'm curious if you have some real insight on this, because my understanding is that Facetime video calls are end-to-end encrypted, and the battery drain seems to be pretty minimal even on older devices.
  - lorenzhs 10y ago
    What's your definition of "pretty minimal"? FaceTime has noticeable battery usage in my experience, but it's not excessive. I'm not sure how it compares to unencrypted video chat, but I doubt it's much higher. Crypto is typically accelerated in mobile devices these days. I would guess that the screen and network (Modem/wifi active all the time) are the battery-draining bits, and while encoding and encryption don't help, they're hardware-accelerated. That's only a guess, though, and I'd appreciate it if anyone had data on this.
- Siimteller 10y ago
  Video calls in general are CPU/battery heavy operations, I've done pretty long ones with Wire (my employer) and yes, the phone gets warm but no issues with performance (iPhone 6).

pmlnr 10y ago

Encrypted video calls will crush mobile CPUs in my opinion, but indeed it would be nice to have one.

krrrh 10y ago
I'm curious if you have some real insight on this, because my understanding is that Facetime video calls are end-to-end encrypted, and the battery drain seems to be pretty minimal even on older devices.
- lorenzhs 10y ago
  What's your definition of "pretty minimal"? FaceTime has noticeable battery usage in my experience, but it's not excessive. I'm not sure how it compares to unencrypted video chat, but I doubt it's much higher. Crypto is typically accelerated in mobile devices these days. I would guess that the screen and network (Modem/wifi active all the time) are the battery-draining bits, and while encoding and encryption don't help, they're hardware-accelerated. That's only a guess, though, and I'd appreciate it if anyone had data on this.
Siimteller 10y ago
Video calls in general are CPU/battery heavy operations, I've done pretty long ones with Wire (my employer) and yes, the phone gets warm but no issues with performance (iPhone 6).