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Sup is a New Messaging App by the Creator of Pixelfed
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this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Oh boy... Another messenger... Yay...
Nobody is telling you to use it. This originally spun out of development of a messaging app just for Pixelfed, but evolved when the dev realized it could be made to work with any Fediverse account, not just his own server project.
An optimistic view is that it could end up opening the door for end-to-end encryption to come to private messages in Fediverse servers, over time.
obligatory xkcd standards
I think what @deadsuperhero@lemmy.ml is trying to explain is that Mastodon and Lemmy for example may be able to implement Sup as a part of their softwares too. Currently if you try to DM someone on Lemmy, the options are a Matrix redirect, or Private Messages designated as not secured.
Though I do wonder about the viability of this. People would still need to set up with Sup to receive messages, at least as I understand it. As a result, this would run into a similar problem as matrix, just without needing to use a different federated server and login I suppose.
This would also require that project leads for AP softwares would want to accept the service as a part of their distribution, assuming it even is implmented in such a manner.
TL;DR it's hard to say anything for certain when details seem to be slim.
Yeah, my current guess for how this will work is that users will do an OAuth sign-in dance with their Fedi accounts to a client that is mostly not connected to their personal accounts in any meaningful way, beyond viewing contacts that have also signed in to the client. The client itself could store the encrypted chat, rather than having it reside on any server.
Eventually, we may be far enough along at a point that the ActivityPub protocol could have an enhancement proposal for supporting chat, and apps like Sup could plug into servers in a more native way, where the conversation data lives encrypted on the server.
This is all just conjecture on my part, but it seems like a viable way to work around current network limitations.
With the open nature of the fediverse I actually see some potential here. Right now there isn’t a single messenger that I truly like. They’re all just different shades of okay or worse.
What's wrong with Signal?
Desktop app works fine tbh.
Phone numbers required for now. Usernames potentially on the horizon per sms removal update.
Server side code is open source and available at Signal Server Github.
Also available on iOS. Android has an apk download so you dont need Google Play.
Does XMPP allow e2ee group video calls?
Yes, but its early days and only few clients support it. You can try it with Dino.
I don't see the problem with that, it's a phone messenger first.
Sure, definitely use what works for you. I do like it as a phone messenger that happens to have a functional desktop client (Telegram and surprisingly, Whatsapp do have better desktop clients).
Signal is great, but the core developer is inherently against federation with his own product. It's just one giant centralized service.
Signal is too darn secure. Much better to have one dude who probably knows how to use a crypto library build the whole thing over again with a coat of ActivityPub on top
Matrix (element I guess)?
Doesn‘t quite have the userbase at least for me. I‘m only using it for one work contact and that’s it. I also heard from others who use Element a bit more that it’s quite buggy, although I haven’t experienced that myself yet.
I just don't think that new msging app will have a larger userbase than matrix. I hope I'm wrong tho
Especially considering that they made gitter into a matrix client, and several IRC servers are easily available.
Fyi Element is the least enjoyable client to use for Matrix. I downloaded a whole bunch and I think I landed on nheko.