Alternative to Whatsapp? (thelemmy.club)

submitted 3 days ago by Hell_nah_brother@thelemmy.club to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk

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Hello, I’m doing some research for my family and friends to help them navigate the tech space and recommend them some better privacy focused alternatives. I’ve been stuck with the most important piece: instant messaging.

Ideally I would like something:

decentralised
Foss
Possibly not tied to phone number
Encrypted
Not funded by an US or Israeli company
Fairly easy to use by not tech people

If I manage to convince them, I can’t make them change in a year or so, the alternative needs to be future-proof.

Signal: is Foss (not completely) but not decentralised (one “wrong” update and we are back to square one) + very much american funded
Matrix: foss and decentralised but funded by an Israeli company (sorry I really can’t)
Telegram: phone number registration, not fully encrypted, server proprietary
Theema: server side not open source
IRC: no video/audio calls, not encrypted

That leaves me with SimpleX and XMPP, I think (I don’t know much about them). What do you guys use/recommend?

I’m reading [this wiki page].(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messaging_protocols?wprov=sfti1#Table_of_instant_messaging_protocols)

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[-] luc891@jlai.lu 68 points 3 days ago

After years of going full degoogle and privacy oriented I found that the best option regarding your criteria is not necessarily the good one. Non-techy people will toss aside anything that's not as easy to use as GAFAM tech.

IMO "good enough" is often the best way to go, rather than "perfect".

In the end, Signal is a pretty good compromise (even though your objections are completely valid).

[-] Hell_nah_brother@thelemmy.club 16 points 3 days ago

I agree, luckily for me some close friends and family will listen to me and try weird stuff (my mum has successfully been converted to 🐧). I will probably give 2 options: the “good enough” (as you said probably Signal) and the “tech recommended” (?).

[-] styanax@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

Signal is "easy" onboarding, just install and follow a wizard. I still have trouble convincing people to just download the app and try which is the hurdle. Most who bother to try it end up liking it and sticking with it since it's easy and familiar to SMS but nicer. The people who don't want to bother just never mention it again, or make up some excuse "won't run on my phone" (it's an iPhone) to stop the conversation.

this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025

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