4 ms·

Voice and video with non-technical friends and family

5 points by ColinWright 6y ago

I'd like to get friends and family off Facebook, but one of the things they use it for is calling people, both voice and video. So I'm looking for a replacement. Ideally whatever we use would run on both phones and laptops/desktops, preferably with a light-weight client. We would need audio, video, and screen-sharing would be useful. Ideally it would be P2P, and not controlled by a single entity. Privacy is a concern as a general principle, and I'd like to be able to avoid joining another "community". My betting is that such a thing doesn't exist, but I'd be interested to know what trade-offs people think are available and accessible for non-technical people. Matrix was one option, but I've heard that some people find it difficult to impossible to get audio and video working. Another option might be Tox, so I'd be interested in hearing of people's experience with that. But all comments, suggestions, and thoughts welcome. Thanks.

_448 6y ago
Thank you for making my question more palatable for HN readers! Really very much appreciated. You just made me realise I need to practice my HN question asking skills :)
- ColinWright 6y ago
  Thank you. It's not worked, though, since no one is replying. A lot depends on luck as to whether something gets noticed, up-voted, and replies. I might try re-posting tomorrow morning (my time) in an attempt to catch a different audience. Then if there are still no replies, I've found a good time to ask these sorts of questions is on a Saturday at about 10:00 UTC. And good luck, I hope you get the information you're looking for. The answer[0] from maverick74[1] might also be useful for you, but you've probably seen that. Cheers. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23526270 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23526270 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=maverick74 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=maverick74
snazz 6y ago
FaceTime? That's probably the closest to what you're looking for. It's end-to-end encrypted, runs on (Apple) phones and computers (which is its biggest weakness for this use-case), does not require joining a "community", and is dead-easy to use. Signal is also great and doesn't require an iPhone, although you have to convince everyone to install the app. Everything in this space is a trade-off, unfortunately. To my knowledge, there's no open-source, end-to-end encrypted, decentralized, peer-to-peer, mobile-friendly, and easy-to-use audio/video calling platform. Assuming that the solution is end-to-end encrypted, I'm not too worried about it being OSS or P2P. For non-technical friends and family, the mobile-friendly part is far more important. Even mobile-only is probably fine for this particular purpose.
rotterdamdev 6y ago
Jitsi is open source, easy to use (click shared link) and secure.
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  I once used Jitsi (the browser-based version) and my CPU usage went above the roof (even after I've disabled HD). It felt like my MacBook Air was going to blow up. Obviously not a battery-friendly app. I still feel like I'm going to use it again when I need a video conference - just for sake of using self-hosted free software.
sethammons 6y ago
Not a perfect match, but we use zoom.
qwerty456127 6y ago
I personally prefer Telegram. It's voice call quality (as well as everything else it offers) feels perfect (your mileage may vary - obviously this depends on your location, your ISP etc) and the bandwidth consumption is shockingly humble. It can also let you send voice messages and video messages easily. Video calling is not there, however - it's a feature planned to be shipped later this year.
qwerty456127 6y ago
Let me mention there is an entire StackExchange site for this kind of questions: https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ You should have posted the question there and submitted a link to it here on HN.

5 points by ColinWright 6y ago

_448 6y ago

Thank you for making my question more palatable for HN readers! Really very much appreciated. You just made me realise I need to practice my HN question asking skills :)

ColinWright 6y ago
Thank you. It's not worked, though, since no one is replying. A lot depends on luck as to whether something gets noticed, up-voted, and replies. I might try re-posting tomorrow morning (my time) in an attempt to catch a different audience. Then if there are still no replies, I've found a good time to ask these sorts of questions is on a Saturday at about 10:00 UTC. And good luck, I hope you get the information you're looking for. The answer[0] from maverick74[1] might also be useful for you, but you've probably seen that. Cheers. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23526270 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23526270 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=maverick74 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=maverick74

snazz 6y ago

FaceTime? That's probably the closest to what you're looking for. It's end-to-end encrypted, runs on (Apple) phones and computers (which is its biggest weakness for this use-case), does not require joining a "community", and is dead-easy to use. Signal is also great and doesn't require an iPhone, although you have to convince everyone to install the app. Everything in this space is a trade-off, unfortunately. To my knowledge, there's no open-source, end-to-end encrypted, decentralized, peer-to-peer, mobile-friendly, and easy-to-use audio/video calling platform. Assuming that the solution is end-to-end encrypted, I'm not too worried about it being OSS or P2P. For non-technical friends and family, the mobile-friendly part is far more important. Even mobile-only is probably fine for this particular purpose.

rotterdamdev 6y ago

Jitsi is open source, easy to use (click shared link) and secure.

qwerty456127 6y ago
I once used Jitsi (the browser-based version) and my CPU usage went above the roof (even after I've disabled HD). It felt like my MacBook Air was going to blow up. Obviously not a battery-friendly app. I still feel like I'm going to use it again when I need a video conference - just for sake of using self-hosted free software.

sethammons 6y ago

Not a perfect match, but we use zoom.

qwerty456127 6y ago

I personally prefer Telegram. It's voice call quality (as well as everything else it offers) feels perfect (your mileage may vary - obviously this depends on your location, your ISP etc) and the bandwidth consumption is shockingly humble. It can also let you send voice messages and video messages easily. Video calling is not there, however - it's a feature planned to be shipped later this year.

qwerty456127 6y ago

Let me mention there is an entire StackExchange site for this kind of questions: https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ You should have posted the question there and submitted a link to it here on HN.