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What kind of messaging apps do you use?

I have been cleaning my phone - removing Google Services, Google Account and replacing it with alternatives. Strangely, I do still have many very different messaging app. If I count correctly, there is Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, Viber and also two local apps TakeUp and Mastadon. I am more and more returning back to SMS messages and normal encrypted e-mails.

What do you use most and is it normal, to have so many messaging apps and using them all for different people groups?

4shtonButcher ,

I’d love to use Signal exclusively and recommend it or move over group chats wherever possible. But some friends and family keep me on WhatsApp and messenger. IMHO using those less is better than using them a lot and having more apps is better than socially isolating yourself.

TheGrandNagus , (edited )

I tried to get everyone on Signal, and I personally donate £5 monthly to Signal, but everybody left. I’m forced to be 100% WhatsApp, because that’s what society uses.

I’m somewhat annoyed that the EU offered Signal the chance of becoming relevant on a silver platter, by forcing WhatsApp to open itself up and offer interoperability with other chat apps, while still maintaining proper E2EE using the Signal protocol, and Signal said nah.

E: oh, and I don’t manage to play much on my PC these days (my gaming time these days is more “oh, I have 20 minutes free, I’ll play on my steam deck while chilling on the couch for a bit!”), but on the once in a blue moon occasion I do, I’ll open up Discord, because good look trying to get people to use anything else.

Tetsuo ,

I stopped using Signal when they dropped SMS support.

It’s a great project but with very bad leadership and strategy.

They definitely had the best shot to secure communications and wasted it.

SirEDCaLot ,

Surprised nobody here is talking about Matrix. Open source, client side / end to end encrypted, chat history stored (encrypted) on the server so it syncs to every device, supports federation, and supports bridges so you can use Matrix to access your other accounts like Signal, WhatsApp, etc and have everything in one place.

Beeper.com is based on Matrix and worth a look. But you can also self-host everything.

Blisterexe ,

I really like beeper, but im probably gonna selfhost all the bridges once i have the hw

SirEDCaLot ,

FWIW beeper is moving towards a client side hosting model where your phone app hosts the bridges. They currently have a local hosted Signal bridge which runs on the phone…

WhyJiffie ,

did they also move the HS to the phone?

SirEDCaLot ,

That was for Beeper Mini which was an attempt at imessage on android.
I don’t think the new version runs the homeserver on the phone; with the new version you can still participate in federated chats and use the desktop client so I don’t think it majorly changed in that way.

MentalEdge ,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

Happy self-hosting matrix user with bridges to various chats, and I’ve successfully converted family to use it, too.

People really like having all their chats in one app.

It’s not simple though. Matrix is the most complicated service I have to maintain.

SirEDCaLot ,

Yeah Synapse is still largely a first gen system. There will be others.

praise_idleness ,

I use Signal with my girlfriend. Others only use Kakaotalk, which is a shittier South Korean Whatsapp clone with more ads and more ways to make money off of you and occasionally SMS.

terminal ,

Exactly the same here. I loathe kakao

dubya43 ,
@dubya43@lemmy.world avatar

iMessage exclusively p much

NineMileTower ,

I’m an American with an Android phone. I use Google Messages for SMS because no one uses anything but iMessages or SMS here. It blows ass.

pooky55 OP ,

No Telegram or Signal or Mastadon? That’s little bit strange, considering the amount of USA surveillance 👀

AdamEatsAss ,

I don’t think most citizens of the USA care about surveillance. (Source: I am a citizen who doesn’t care) Targeted ads don’t really bother me. I care more about convenience than privacy and a good portion of people I know feel the same way. I guess it’s a cultural thing.

ObsidianNebula ,

I’m from the US as well, and I can verify that very few average people use those types of messengers primarily. It is almost exclusively iMessage and SMS/MMS/RCS texts as the main form of messaging. I will admit that quite a few people will use the messaging features that are built into social media apps (like messaging in Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, etc). At least to me, it seems like those are moreso used for sending memes or messaging people you don’t interact with regularly and are still secondary to the other forms of messaging.

Im_old ,

Surprised no one mentioned simplex yet. So whatsapp, matrix (personal server, for family and as a bridge to whatsapp), and simplex.

pooky55 OP ,

What is Simplex?

hades ,

wait, you’re actually using encrypted email? Is it for work or you use it with friends/family too?

I’ve never received an encrypted email in my entire life.

pooky55 OP ,

Encrypted like Proton Email - it means they don’t read my emails by default like Google or Microsoft

flamingo_pinyata ,

Currently I have WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, Viber, a Matrix client (Fluffy), Discord, Slack, SMS, email.

I try to use Signal whenever I can, but convincing people to install yet another messaging app is hard. I don’t see the situation getting better, none of the major players is close to going out of business.

fart_pickle ,

I use SMS and good old phone calls. You would be surprised how much people freak up when you call them. For work I use Slack, sometimes Teams. And on rare occasions, Messenger to talk to some family members.

edit Forgot about emails. I use it for more planned communications.

random_character_a ,
@random_character_a@lemmy.world avatar

Telegram and SMS.

Although I just ordered Heltec T114 for Mestastic LoRa communication, but that’s a system, not just app/software.

PureTryOut ,
@PureTryOut@lemmy.kde.social avatar

Email, Matrix (also with friends and family) and sadly also still WhatsApp…

solrize ,

Email and sometimes irc. And old fashioned sms when needed.

pooky55 OP ,

IRC is still alive?

badbrainstorm ,
@badbrainstorm@lemmy.world avatar

IRC will never die! I mean, it probably will eventually. It’s still fairly popular with Linux users, and even stil preinstalled on some distros

pooky55 OP ,

Are there some websites or lists of interesting channels?

badbrainstorm ,
@badbrainstorm@lemmy.world avatar

Depends on what you’re into. It’s kinda like discord, in that it has a lot of servers for specific communities/apps/games, etc.

I used it mostly for pirating cause it was always blazing fast compared to torrenting.

Libera.chat, IRCNet, Undernet, Rizon, EFNet are the biggest networks I can think of off my head. Each has like 5000 to 20000 channels!

lurch ,

I use MS Teams for work. We don’t have to use it, but it’s more comfortable to send a chat message when I’m late for a meeting, than to phone the front desk and tell them to relay it to all attendees. Also, you can send Chats to yourself and I do it for work related notes I want to make off work, i.e. a neews article I want to share with colleagues during working hours.

WhyJiffie ,

I only have Telegram and Matrix. SMS? To me that sounds to be a huge step back, even from Telegram

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