While Signal's home base is the US, they are a non profit org that doesn't operate in the same way as for-profit corporations. Also, Signal collects basically zero data so there's no incentive to sell out, and who would want to buy them anyway when they have no data and the server and client are open source.

Matrix is great, but I wouldn't compare it to Signal. I use both for very different purposes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Agree with the sentiment against signal. However, Matrix is terrible for anyone who doesn't want to bother with reading up on several hours of information just to use a text messenger. I will start recommending Matrix the moment someone actually manages to produce a feature complete client with usable UI/UX.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

yeah been trying out matrix. Setup a server and tried various clients. They are all shit.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

XMPP is more comparable to Signal, yes.

Signal does need (yes, need) a phone number, and most people only have one so that is identifiable info.

This puts it at mostly the same level as some competitors, including WhatsApp which is often advised against.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 23 hours ago

Signal will operate until Elon Musk decides that everyone has to use X to communicate.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Also simplex is a good alternative, it's decentralized:)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This? https://https/://simplex.chat/

FWIW Matrix and XMPP are also decentralised, much like e-mail is, which is why I recommended it. I'm immediately skeptic about SimpleX's premise of having no user IDs; they'll likely need some unique field for each user, this might as well be a UUID or something like that... So what's the benefit?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Since it's related, here's a good comparison:

https://eylenburg.github.io/im_comparison.htm

I think the other person here explained the thing about user ids. Matrix and xmpp are good too, they're just different.

Simplex is more of a messenger, while xmpp/matrix are more of discord alternatives.

Also simplex works with nodes. I can host a simplex server and it will be added to the network. In matrix/xmpp if I host a server it will be a new instance, like in lemmy (if I get it right). Simplex's approach is like tor's approach, each server added contributes to the whole network (they arent a separate instance).

If you check their page they have some bery good features, to me it seems like its signal, done (somewhat) right. Signal doesnt even have a proper way to migrate accounts across devices.. not to mention the phone number requirement which might scare people who aren't gonna waste time hearing my explanation as to why it's not an issue or the fact that until recently signal would notify everyone in your contacts who had a signal account that you made an account, bruh

There's also this comment here that throws some shade to matrix, havent looked much into that tho.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago

Oh that is a great explanation, thanks a bunch!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Each convo gets its own UUID, and the convos can be spread across different servers/companies too.

That said the notifications don’t work consistently for me on iOS, so that’s a dealbreaker. Hopefully they fix that soon.