I’ve started missing out on events just because I am not in the group chats my friends are having on there. That is where I draw my limit. I need to start using Messenger.

However I still wish to use Messenger with as much privacy as possible. I am looking for any advice that might improve my experience and lessen any privacy impact.

I will be creating a fresh account that will just have a picture of me and my first name.

I am running iodeOS (Google-free Android ROM with built in ad-block) on my phone and I am very happy with it so far. I will be blocking messengers outgoing requests as much as possible while still retaining base functionality, but I’m not sure how much that will help.

How do I best use Messenger on Android from a privacy perspective?

  • dtcEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    I’ve had this “problem” before, and I did not want to use the full Messenger app for privacy reasons as well. I had installed Messenger Lite, but it was discontinued a few weeks ago. I now have Facebook Lite, which also has Messenger, and you get notifications as well. It’s not perfect, but don’t give it too many permissions and you should be mostly fine. Using it in the browser is absolutely terrible, and you would not get push notifications.

    • river@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      A long time ago I used an app called Tinfoil Facebook that created a sandbox web browser style situation in the app. Gave it a nice UI and did not leave a trace. Switched to iPhone at some point. I wonder if it’s still around…

      • dtcEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Seems to still be available on F-Droid, but the last update was in 2017. I’ve installed it, but ended up not logging in since it’s targeting an SDK version so old that Android is giving me a bunch of warnings (and it doesn’t even scale to my entire screen, there’s a big black space at the bottom)