adbenitez

I know, but I don't want to self-host it, I want to use it completely offline as an app on the phone just as google translator app, also LibreTranslate can't translate in real time using the phone camera like Google Lens

it is pointless to talk in theory without actually trying things out, besides the app doesn't have to do only email, in fact it already has p2p support for real-time that can be used for now inside the https://webxdc.org/ mini-apps, and might be used for calls in the future, or just use WebRTC for calls, one of the mini-apps in the store "Live Chat" already has typing indicators btw. The app already has Jitsi Meet invitations integration.

Chatting in Delta Chat with chatmail feels just as fast as WhatsApp, Telegram etc. sometimes even faster depending on the chatmail server you use

WHen i tried it years ago

you should try it again, Delta Chat is totally on a different level than a few years ago, there has been tons of improvements, I started using it around 2018, now I am even contributing to it

Delta chat is basically email.

and how is that exactly a problem? the protocol is email, but email done right is actually good and fast, as it can be tested if you actually try out the app. The new chatmail servers are optimized for chatting, the main reason classic email providers suck is because they have to deal with spam and arbitrary decisions like gray-listing etc

without being picky about quality of translations vs Google Translator, this can't be used offline in the phone/android, right? maybe trying to setup the server side inside Termux could work, this doesn't solve the problem of translating text just by pointing the camera to some banner or traffic sign etc. which is useful while traveling in a foreign country etc.

Can DeepL be used offline? One of the killer features of Google Translate IMHO is the ability to download the language models and translate offline, that plus the integration with Google Lens which also can be used completely offline to translate text in real life pointing the camera or from an image is a killer feature I have not seen other alternative provide, I would like to be completely independent from an online service, even if it is Google if you download the languages and block internet access of the app with a firewall that is better than an online service.

I am currently not using Google Translator, uninstalled the app together with Lens and have a degoogled phone now but I am suffering in silence every day

https://arcanechat.me/ is also European (Germany) and is decentralized, fully OpenSource, free/gratis and registration requires ZERO personal data! Everything is End-to-end encrypted between people, server can't see any data which is encrypted and stored only temporarily on the server

and the thing is: Telegram having a proprietary server feels more opensource and open to 3rd party clients and developers (ex. bots, mini-apps etc) than Signal, Signal's issue tracker has a bot auto-closing stale issues and several people are completely ignored, never receive a reply

I highly recommend you to give a try to https://arcanechat.me/ (I am the developer) it is heavily inspired by Telegram, if you want to test it you can join this community group: https://i.delta.chat/#6CBFF8FFD505C0FDEA20A66674F2916EA8FBEE99=&a=invitebot%40nine.testrun.org&g=ArcaneChat+Community&x=3KvvQZfzU4t-9u5s0PF3USGp&i=AQKH9_8x0R0&s=dbGW9xOhRQX

Threema is paid (registration tied to payment is already bad for privacy, most people will not register with some crypto-coin etc) and centralized, any centralized service is vulnerable to enshitification, none of them start evil, also it is easier to block by authoritarian governments and can't be used in a sovereign/independent way (ex. own independent server in a local community)

Session: it has been a long time since I last used Session, at the time my impression was that it was a bit hacky and it was draining my battery and using a lot of mobile data, more importantly Session doesn't seem to have multi-account support, also doesn't seem to support using your own independent server "off-the-grid". Session groups have a limit of only 100 members while in ArcaneChat groups can have 1000 members for now (or even more depending on the server you use, ex. your own)

none of them have in-chat collaborative/interactive apps (ex. collaborative editor, calendar, shopping lists, split bills, polls, etc.) and games that can be used even while offline

I like SIP and XMPP, but in practice I don't have any contacts to use it and the apps are lacking a bit compared to ArcaneChat/DeltaChat, besides the problem of losing groups because the XMPP server went down etc. there are some downsides but yes, if I was not satisfied with ArcaneChat I would use XMPP and SIP, or anything that is open source, decentralized and doesn't require a phone number

Nice! 🤩

How on earth do you think the various Matrix clients are “this is for nerds” like and buggy? How do you come to this statement?

if you don't even see the problem, I am not even sure it is worth to try to talk about it... ex. a private 1:1 chat in Matrix is a "room" the whole experience of starting a private chat with your mom is a series of "foo invited bar to room", "bar joined the room", etc. besides easy to end up in a state where not even you can read your own messages the famous "unable to decrypt"

Signal can be based on Useraccounts without phone numbers as well.

Signal depends on phone numbers, if you are talking about setting a nick-name (which Telegram supports since ages) that doesn't mean anything a phone number is still required, just as in Telegram, and it is not an argument against my point that talked about the need for a SIM card.

And the registration process tbh is a pro and non a con

it is a con, period.

if you don’t provide a secured process you will be run over by bots at some time.

bots are supported and welcome, just as on Telegram, bots can't spam people because, unlike on Signal with the phone numbers problem, in ArcaneChat people can't just write to you randomly, they need your contact's invitation link. Also in worse case, migrating your address is possible and cheap, you can have many accounts as you want and also create accounts temporarily to interact "in the wild"

Is that feature audited?

yes, ArcaneChat is a Delta Chat client, and the Delta Chat app and core has received several audits (six over the past of years so far), any Delta Chat client using the Delta Chat core benefits from the security audits, you can read about it here: https://chaos.social/@delta/113963707915543266 unlike many of the mentioned clients that don't have any known security audit at all?

BTW: Furthmore your website does not confirm with German legal requirements and makes you an easy target for bad faith lawyers,btw.

could you tell me what is wrong with it? my address is show in the terms & privacy policy / GDPR, but I admittedly am not well informed in German law topics, so if you could point me in the right direction I would be really grateful

post-data: please don't read my reply as a aggressive discussion, I am just providing arguments, not trying to fight unknown people in the Internet, and I appreciate you took your time to reply, have a nice day!