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"Some viable alternatives I can recommend are Threema or TextSecure." The problem with Threema and TextSecure is that it's hard to convince my friends to use t

"Some viable alternatives I can recommend are Threema or TextSecure." The problem with Threema and TextSecure is that it's hard to convince my friends to use them because - Threema is not free and does not have desktop/web clients, and multi-device setup is not supported afaik - TextSecure is not really multi-platform The only popular, multiplatform messengers at the moment are Whatsapp, FB Messenger, Viber/Line and Telegram. Whatsapp doesn't have a desktop client, Messenger requires a Facebook Login, Telegram and Whatsapp does not have voice chat and I hate Viber's design -> so I keep using Telegram for messaging and Skype for voice. The network effects can be very nicely observed in messenger usages. In my home country almost everyone uses Viber, but in other countries I have worked (W-EU) almost everyone uses Whatsapp. In Germany people seem to know Telegram, in other places nobody heard about it.

dsacco 12y ago
I know you most likely meant synchronous voice chat, but if you can deal with asynchronous voice chat, you'll be able to have full end-to-end encryption for that and text messages using WhatsApp in partnership with Open Whisper Systems in the near-ish future.
- sz4kerto 12y ago
  Yeah, that's not really acceptable when I'm calling the tax authorities or my car dealer to arrange an appointment :) for that purpose, Skype is 100% workable for me (even under Linux).
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
cyphunk 12y ago
Threema, Facebook, WhatsApp are not open source. TextSecure and Telegram have open source clients allowing for verification and trust of the protocol.
- acdha 12y ago
  If you aren't auditing the binary which is actually running, the open-source distinction is academic for most people.
- electic 12y ago
  Not to mention, the source code on Telegram's website is woefully out of date. There has not been any new postings for a long long long time.
rnhmjoj 12y ago
You could use Tox for instant messaging and voice chat. https://tox.im https://tox.im Now several clients have A/V support and there are ones for iOS and Android.
m_mueller 12y ago
I find it astonishing that in 2015 there's still no org is funded enough to have a server infrastructure and a clean UI that everyone can use and is smart enough to use crypto correctly when it comes to chat clients. What gives?
antihero 12y ago
If you like TextSecure, there's RedPhone which does encrypted VoIP, from the same people. I thought the quality was abysmal compared to normal phonecalls, though, which is a shame.

dsacco 12y ago

I know you most likely meant synchronous voice chat, but if you can deal with asynchronous voice chat, you'll be able to have full end-to-end encryption for that and text messages using WhatsApp in partnership with Open Whisper Systems in the near-ish future.

sz4kerto 12y ago
Yeah, that's not really acceptable when I'm calling the tax authorities or my car dealer to arrange an appointment :) for that purpose, Skype is 100% workable for me (even under Linux).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

cyphunk 12y ago

Threema, Facebook, WhatsApp are not open source. TextSecure and Telegram have open source clients allowing for verification and trust of the protocol.

acdha 12y ago
If you aren't auditing the binary which is actually running, the open-source distinction is academic for most people.
electic 12y ago
Not to mention, the source code on Telegram's website is woefully out of date. There has not been any new postings for a long long long time.

rnhmjoj 12y ago

You could use Tox for instant messaging and voice chat. https://tox.im https://tox.im Now several clients have A/V support and there are ones for iOS and Android.

m_mueller 12y ago

I find it astonishing that in 2015 there's still no org is funded enough to have a server infrastructure and a clean UI that everyone can use and is smart enough to use crypto correctly when it comes to chat clients. What gives?

antihero 12y ago

If you like TextSecure, there's RedPhone which does encrypted VoIP, from the same people. I thought the quality was abysmal compared to normal phonecalls, though, which is a shame.