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> Is Matrix a good alternative to Signal? To a certain degree I'd say this is apples vs oranges. Before you shoot me down, let me explain. The reason I say th
by josteink 6y ago
> Is Matrix a good alternative to Signal?
To a certain degree I'd say this is apples vs oranges.
Before you shoot me down, let me explain. The reason I say that is because of the core focus of the different platforms.
Signal's priority-one use-case is clearly person-to-person IM and communication. The UI, setup-process and entire architecture is optimized for this one use-case, with all other use-cases being shoehorned in to fit whatever was built for that.
I'd say Matrix (for the moment disregarding a key feature, bridging) has as its primary use-case to be a discord/slack/IRC alternative, to handle "channels", long term group chats and basically persistent online collaboration workspaces.
Sure. Technically speaking, Matrix has a full support for E2E encrypted person-to-person IM and communications (even phone-calls and audio!), and you can use it for that. But this was clearly not the primary use-case Matrix was designed to solve.
Therefore IMO Matrix person-to-person chat has this slightly shoehorned-in feeling, so you may have a somewhat lesser user-experience when using Matrix to do these things than other platforms which had this as their primary goal.
Disclaimer: Happy Matrix-user, running own server, bridging both FB, WhatsApp and Signal into the matrix-verse.
- fsflover 6y agoAre you suggesting to use a separate app for every different use case?
- josteink 6y agoNot at all. I’m just saying that if you try to suggest Matrix as a “drop in” replacement for WhatsApp or other dedicated IM platforms, it may not immediately give you that “at home” feeling right now. It’s much more capable, but different. For better and worse.
- juniperplant 6y agoAs far as I know, the Matrix protocol shouldn't be limiting when it comes to one-to-one chats. There are already Matrix mobile clients focusing on this use case, aiming at being a WhatsApp replacement. Examples are: Ditto Chat[1], Nio[2], and FluffyChat[3]. Before trying to solve the network-effect issue (i.e. all people using WhatsApp), we should make one of the mentioned clients at least as good as WhatsApp, or else users won't switch. [1] https://dittochat.org https://dittochat.org [2] https://nio.chat https://nio.chat [3] https://fluffychat.im https://fluffychat.im
- josteink 6y agoTried a few of those. Fluffychat looks promising so keeping that for now!