What kind of messaging apps do you use?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨pooky55@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

I have been cleaning my phone - removing Google Services, Google Account and replacing it with alternatives. Strangely, I do still have many very different messaging app. If I count correctly, there is Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, Viber and also two local apps TakeUp and Mastadon. I am more and more returning back to SMS messages and normal encrypted e-mails.

What do you use most and is it normal, to have so many messaging apps and using them all for different people groups?

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Comments

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4shtonButcher@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’d love to use Signal exclusively and recommend it or move over group chats wherever possible. But some friends and family keep me on WhatsApp and messenger. IMHO using those less is better than using them a lot and having more apps is better than socially isolating yourself.

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TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I tried to get everyone on Signal, and I personally donate £5 monthly to Signal, but everybody left. I’m forced to be 100% WhatsApp, because that’s what society uses.

I’m somewhat annoyed that the EU offered Signal the chance of becoming relevant on a silver platter, by forcing WhatsApp to open itself up and offer interoperability with other chat apps, while still maintaining proper E2EE using the Signal protocol, and Signal said nah.

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- Tetsuo@jlai.lu ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I stopped using Signal when they dropped SMS support.
  
  It’s a great project but with very bad leadership and strategy.
  
  They definitely had the best shot to secure communications and wasted it.
  
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NineMileTower@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m an American with an Android phone. I use Google Messages for SMS because no one uses anything but iMessages or SMS here. It blows ass.

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- pooky55@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  No Telegram or Signal or Mastadon? That’s little bit strange, considering the amount of USA surveillance 👀
  
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  - ObsidianNebula@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’m from the US as well, and I can verify that very few average people use those types of messengers primarily. It is almost exclusively iMessage and SMS/MMS/RCS texts as the main form of messaging. I will admit that quite a few people will use the messaging features that are built into social media apps (like messaging in Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, etc). At least to me, it seems like those are moreso used for sending memes or messaging people you don’t interact with regularly and are still secondary to the other forms of messaging.
    
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  - AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I don’t think most citizens of the USA care about surveillance. (Source: I am a citizen who doesn’t care) Targeted ads don’t really bother me. I care more about convenience than privacy and a good portion of people I know feel the same way. I guess it’s a cultural thing.
    
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SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Surprised nobody here is talking about Matrix. Open source, client side / end to end encrypted, chat history stored (encrypted) on the server so it syncs to every device, supports federation, and supports bridges so you can use Matrix to access your other accounts like Signal, WhatsApp, etc and have everything in one place.

Beeper.com is based on Matrix and worth a look. But you can also self-host everything.

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- Blisterexe@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I really like beeper, but im probably gonna selfhost all the bridges once i have the hw
  
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  - SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    FWIW beeper is moving towards a client side hosting model where your phone app hosts the bridges. They currently have a local hosted Signal bridge which runs on the phone…
    
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- MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Happy self-hosting matrix user with bridges to various chats, and I’ve successfully converted family to use it, too.
  
  People really like having all their chats in one app.
  
  It’s not simple though. Matrix is the most complicated service I have to maintain.
  
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  - SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah Synapse is still largely a first gen system. There will be others.
    
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praise_idleness@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I use Signal with my girlfriend. Others only use Kakaotalk, which is a shittier South Korean Whatsapp clone with more ads and more ways to make money off of you and occasionally SMS.

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- terminal@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Exactly the same here. I loathe kakao
  
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  - praise_idleness@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    There is no app that I hate more than Kakaotalk.
    
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foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My go-to for pretty much all purposes would be to use SimpleX, it’s a really good secure and private app that is in early development. Basically it use the Signal protocol, but in an app without telemetry, blobs, etc… Or if you want to use Signal, download Molly

My other recommandation would be Matrix for large public groups or business talk.

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dubya43@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
iMessage exclusively p much

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Im_old@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Surprised no one mentioned simplex yet. So whatsapp, matrix (personal server, for family and as a bridge to whatsapp), and simplex.

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- pooky55@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What is Simplex?
  
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  - Im_old@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Simplex chat, encrypted anonymous platform.
    
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hades@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
wait, you’re actually using encrypted email? Is it for work or you use it with friends/family too?

I’ve never received an encrypted email in my entire life.

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- pooky55@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Encrypted like Proton Email - it means they don’t read my emails by default like Google or Microsoft
  
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flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Currently I have WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, Viber, a Matrix client (Fluffy), Discord, Slack, SMS, email.

I try to use Signal whenever I can, but convincing people to install yet another messaging app is hard. I don’t see the situation getting better, none of the major players is close to going out of business.

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fart_pickle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I use SMS and good old phone calls. You would be surprised how much people freak up when you call them. For work I use Slack, sometimes Teams. And on rare occasions, Messenger to talk to some family members.

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lurch@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I use MS Teams for work. We don’t have to use it, but it’s more comfortable to send a chat message when I’m late for a meeting, than to phone the front desk and tell them to relay it to all attendees. Also, you can send Chats to yourself and I do it for work related notes I want to make off work, i.e. a neews article I want to share with colleagues during working hours.

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sundriedpizza@lemmy.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I mostly use Signal and qksms for SMS. Also use element(Matrix).

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ABCDE@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, in order of usage.

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random_character_a@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Telegram and SMS.

Although I just ordered Heltec T114 for Mestastic LoRa communication, but that’s a system, not just app/software.

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PureTryOut@lemmy.kde.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Email, Matrix (also with friends and family) and sadly also still WhatsApp…

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solrize@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Email and sometimes irc. And old fashioned sms when needed.

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- pooky55@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  IRC is still alive?
  
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  - badbrainstorm@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    IRC will never die! I mean, it probably will eventually. It’s still fairly popular with Linux users, and even stil preinstalled on some distros
    
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JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve been poking around Beeper for a while, but only some of their code is open source unfortunately. They have good ideas in their privacy statements, but I haven’t personally verified them.

That being said, the functionality is insane. Combining a lot of the major messaging apps into one is incredibly convenient

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WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I only have Telegram and Matrix. SMS? To me that sounds to be a huge step back, even from Telegram

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CIAvash@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Delta Chat, SimpleX and Jami

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Humanius@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Discord and Whatsapp
I’d love to use Signal, but virtually noone in my sphere uses it.

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gerryflap@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I try to steer as many people as I know to Signal, but I don’t want to be the type of person who accepts no compromise so I also use a bunch of others. Whatsapp is the most common, as pretty much everyone here in the Netherlands uses it. I used to use Telegram, but nowadays I trust it less than Whatsapp and all my Telegram chats have moved to Signal. SMS is only there for backup and older people who don’t use other apps. And Discord is there for people who want their messages to never be read, because that app is a dumpster fire that constantly makes me miss messages.

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noodlejetski@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Signal for some friends and family, Whatsapp (ugh) mainly for work, Discord (ugh ugh) with a few gaming buddies, and Matrix for a group chat or two.

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TheFunkyMonk@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve tried to get my friends consolidated in one app in the past, but have given up. I prefer Discord, but use a combo of that and Slack, Signal, GroupMe, IG, FB Messenger, SMS, email, and probably some others I’m forgetting about. Discord is the only one I directly open, the others I’ll just rely on notifications.

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