this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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Privacy

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Over the past few years I have gone through a bunch of different apps and protocols to find the best one for "securely" communicating with my family and friends.

I ended up with the amazing XMPP protocol and my family/friends frequently use its clients to contact me.

Monal for IOS and Cheogram/Conversations/Quicksy for Android. The android app I install depends on if I can get F-Droid on their phone or not.

It's been great with OMEMO encryption and the clients/apps available for XMPP. But sometimes I have issues introducing people to it.

Jabber (friendly name for xmpp) sounds silly to say. The clients all have weird names. And after trying the Signal mobile app it feels more focused than what anyone in the XMPP community has whipped up.

But the capabilities of XMPP makes it better.

Signal Cons (immediete)

  • Centralized
  • Single app
  • Phone numbers

XMPP/Jabber Cons

  • Picking server
  • Apps are sort of less friendly

What really scares me about Signal is the centralization. Any nerd can easily host an XMPP server these days. But Signal from what I've heard really wants us to use their server.

If XMPP gets more attention I'm sure we can get people supporting projects and creating better apps.

I keep seeing people recommended Signal instead.

This is a bit of a tired ramble. What I wanna know is why anyone is preferring Signal over XMPP apps. I assume it might be not knowing about it. Tell me what you use to message people.

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[–] Cobrachicken@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Well I seached for "jabber" and found Trillian as fourth or so hit. Dunno how good it's on Apple, but I seem to remember using a PC build somewhen with no negative memories. It's free. Your concerns till now seem like rambling. Or general, as in: How do I make people leave WA, which is, admittedly, complicated.

edit: Double word deleted

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You cant make anyone do anything, you can entice them over.

To do that they need to be simple and easy to use, what you're describing is already more complicated than downloading signal or WhatsApp, signing up, and starting.

[–] Cobrachicken@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Was that too many words for you or what?

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago

Use this thing called empathy and try and imagine how a non-tech nerd thinks. If you lack the capability of empathy, then you're never going to get a satisfying answer.v