4 ms·

I'm wondering how it works with different messaging apps. I'm using mostly Facebook Messenger, because of the network effects. A few months ago I tried to use s

by hawski 8y ago

I'm wondering how it works with different messaging apps. I'm using mostly Facebook Messenger, because of the network effects. A few months ago I tried to use several apps to communicate with my wife. Both Signal and Wire failed to reliably send messages in under 30 minutes or so. More often then not the message would be delivered after a few hours. That's totally unacceptable. If there are some magic settings in Android they were not properly advertised. Our phones are on quite pure 8.1 and 7 versions. So I'm back to Messenger. Reading this it seems that there is a known solution to this problem. Does Mastodon offer something like private messages? Or is there a messaging app that doesn't use FCM, but works in a way described in article?

icebraining 8y ago
If your phone has Google Play Services running, Signal should use GCM/FCM; they have a websockets mode, but only for devices lacking the former. I don't use Signal, but I don't think that delay is typical, could there be an issue with the connectivity to their servers?
- metildaa 8y ago
  Nope, this is not normal behavior for Signal, it is a sign that the sending or receiving phone has FCM and data connectivity issues. I have seen this issue on Motorola Android phones with known dying LTE Modems (eg: these phones couldn't maintain a data session for more than a few minutes, GPS off WiFi is also unreliable).
egypturnash 8y ago
Mastodon has “private” messages but it is primarily about being Distributed Twitter. I put “private” in quotes because they’re not encrypted in transit between servers, and an unethical admin could easily intercept them.
interfixus 8y ago
During so far nearly two years of frequent Signal use, I have had one - one - not getting instantly delivered, and that was due to network breakdown at my end. There's plenty not to like about Signal, but reliability is second to none.
KAMSPioneer 8y ago
One option I like is the app "Conversations" (available on F-Droid and Play Store). It's a nice XMPP client with Signal-based (OMEMO) encryption, a great UI (in my opinion anyway), and it's extremely battery friendly in my experience -- my device doesn't have GCM/FCM. You'll need an XMPP server though, and to use the E2E encryption you'll need a server which supports certain XEPs. The app dev also runs a server at conversations.im that is, of course, compatible. It costs €8/yr though. That said, there are several public servers with OMEMO support, plus self-hosting is an option.

by hawski 8y ago

icebraining 8y ago

If your phone has Google Play Services running, Signal should use GCM/FCM; they have a websockets mode, but only for devices lacking the former. I don't use Signal, but I don't think that delay is typical, could there be an issue with the connectivity to their servers?

metildaa 8y ago
Nope, this is not normal behavior for Signal, it is a sign that the sending or receiving phone has FCM and data connectivity issues. I have seen this issue on Motorola Android phones with known dying LTE Modems (eg: these phones couldn't maintain a data session for more than a few minutes, GPS off WiFi is also unreliable).

egypturnash 8y ago

Mastodon has “private” messages but it is primarily about being Distributed Twitter. I put “private” in quotes because they’re not encrypted in transit between servers, and an unethical admin could easily intercept them.

interfixus 8y ago

During so far nearly two years of frequent Signal use, I have had one - one - not getting instantly delivered, and that was due to network breakdown at my end. There's plenty not to like about Signal, but reliability is second to none.

KAMSPioneer 8y ago

One option I like is the app "Conversations" (available on F-Droid and Play Store). It's a nice XMPP client with Signal-based (OMEMO) encryption, a great UI (in my opinion anyway), and it's extremely battery friendly in my experience -- my device doesn't have GCM/FCM. You'll need an XMPP server though, and to use the E2E encryption you'll need a server which supports certain XEPs. The app dev also runs a server at conversations.im that is, of course, compatible. It costs €8/yr though. That said, there are several public servers with OMEMO support, plus self-hosting is an option.