I am really struggling to replace facebook messenger / whatsapp for a few casual conversations. My friends and I are all wanting to move away. We are not heavy users of this but need it to work. I think the requirements are:

  • floss client for android, linux, windows

  • persistent history across devices

  • reasonable security

  • don’t need to self host server

  • can send a message to offline user, they get it when they come online

  • not tied to or reliant on phone number / cell service

  • ETA: end user documentation explaining how to set up and common troubleshooting

tried:

  • matrix: the thing with having to keep track of room keys and stuff is too complicated. every time someone uses a new device it is a ton of issues and we could never quite get it ironed out

  • signal: tied to phone number, no history across devices

  • xmpp: similar to matrix the key situation is confusing, also no cross device history

  • ETA: simpleX: a lot of people here are mentioning simpleX. It didn’t come up in previous investigations so will give it a shot.

    • ETA 2: It doesn’t seem to have persistent history across devices. Clarification?

I actually didn’t think this would be such a problem but it is breaking us. we don’t need a lot of sophisticated features like voice, video, moderation, 1000s of participants, spam protection etc that seem to be of concern to the projects. just simple text chat.

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
    42·
    11 months ago

    Session satisfies all your points. It started life as a fork of Signal, but is not tied to any PII. Synced across devices, everything. iOS, too, even. The only thing it doesn’t have is a terminal client, but it’s easly days.

    I’ve tried them all; so far Session is the only one that passes the non-tech-spouse test. We were happy sith Wire for a couple of years, but it’s been going through some severe enshittification in the post several months.

    Edit fixed the fdroid repo URL

    • linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      102·
      11 months ago

      so if you click documentation on the session website it brings you to this page https://docs.oxen.io/oxen-docs/products-built-on-oxen/session

      I am seeing the words “blockchain”, “economics”, “token”, “instant transactions”… And one click to NFT crypto stuff.

      I remember hearing that blockchain tech could be used for stuff other than scams but it is used for scams a lot and this app seems to be related to scam-type activity.

      Can someone provide any insight?

      • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
        4·
        11 months ago

        a. not all blockchain is bad b. I have neither seen, nor heard, of blockchain or cryptocoins on the platform. If blockchain is being used under the covers, it’s not visible to users. I see no ability to do anything with NFTs or cryptocoins in any of the clients.

        Session delivers messages more reliably than many platforms; E2E encrypts all messages (unencrypted is not even an option); requires no PII; has a good battery profile on mobile; reliably allows sharing, and has nice QOL features (that my non-tech family members have come to expect) like animated GIF search-and-embed; it supports message deletion and dissapearing messages; it has encrypted voice and video chat.

        If there’s any blockchain in the stack, then Session is an excellent example of its usefulness.

        It’s all open-source, too, so audit away.

        It’s not perfect, of course. There’s no CLI client. Because there’s no PII, there’s no registry, so connecting to people is harder than many platforms, and looking people up, impossible. The desktop client is an Electron app, so it’s typically resource hungry. It doesn’t yet have sent message editing.

          • linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.deOP
            1·
            11 months ago

            Sorry that was pretty unclear lol

            I was linking to another comment I wrote in this thread about this very strange cryptocurrency-based chat thing. I sort of had the impression maybe you have some prior knowledge of this. I never heard of it and find it puzzling just what the heck they are up to. I am not gonna use it because it smells bad. But am now interested to know what sort of business is going on. The person who recommended it sounds very satisfied with the chat interface. Why/how is it attached to crypto? Just… so weird.

            • erAck@discuss.tchncs.de
              2·
              11 months ago
              • Session connects to Oxen Service Nodes.
              • One can run such node only if one buys into $OXEN.

              That already is sufficient to stay away.

              Additionally, node operators are rewarded in $OXEN for services offered on nodes, mined on the Oxen blockchain.

              If these nodes cease to operate, Session will be dead.