Privacy

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Why Signal over Jabber/XMPP? (piefed.world)

submitted 1 day ago by TurkeyDurkey@piefed.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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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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[–] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Because it's nearly impossible to convince friends and family to use anything other than iMessage or "the text app" on their phone. The process you've described is basically akin to swimming the English Channel for the general public. I'd do it. But expecting anyone else to is just a pipe dream.

I'm already a social outcast and second class citizen for not using imessage. Asking my friends and family to install a whole separate app just to communicate with me puts me firmly in weirdo territory.

[–] TurkeyDurkey@piefed.world 2 points 23 hours ago

It can be tough trying to stick to good privacy and staying social. I can do it because I've set boundaries and have a passion for what I believe in.

If somebosy actually wants to contact me, they join a privacy friendly platform, or just take my email. Most people my generation do not use email for instant communication, and neither do I.

I've gotten myself to be someone people want to reach out to, almost entirely in an effort to promote/market FOSS. To be a likable, knowledgeable, and friendly resource. That's how I managed to convert a lot of people. If I say anymore I really bet I could be identified from my post. 😆

Tough pursuits will never be a pipe dream. It just takes enough time and grit. And a little mojo.