What viable user-friendly (i.e. no account creation required) options are there? I just want my messages between friends and family to not be mined by greedy corporations.
The problem is not the account, but the mandatory phone number verification
Yes, it is. At least from the perspective of normal users.
The reason for WhatsApp (or Telegram or iMessage) becoming as big as it is was the convenience (later the network effect, of course, too) of just entering your phone number and then it just works™. No server selection, no password to remember, totally hassle free—that is the argument I get to hear very often.
And honestly, I have no idea, how we could provide a similar conveniance that is fool proof and secure and private.
I was referring to the “no account creation required” and given how other online services seem to be doing fine with accounts I don’t think it is as big of a hurdle as you make it seem.
Of course automatic discovery of accounts based on phone numbers is a different topic, but there are also plenty of people who hate that feature (Telegram has a special feature to not allow that even).
Session is a pretty good one in my opinion. Also matrix has some privacy related concerns with the amount of meta data being shared on every home server.
What viable user-friendly (i.e. no account creation required) options are there? I just want my messages between friends and family to not be mined by greedy corporations.
deleted by creator
Matrix is pretty good.
The problem is not the account, but the mandatory phone number verification.
XMPP with the Android Conversations or BlabberIM client works pretty well as an alternative and uses the same high quality encryption as Signal.
Yes, it is. At least from the perspective of normal users.
The reason for WhatsApp (or Telegram or iMessage) becoming as big as it is was the convenience (later the network effect, of course, too) of just entering your phone number and then it just works™. No server selection, no password to remember, totally hassle free—that is the argument I get to hear very often.
And honestly, I have no idea, how we could provide a similar conveniance that is fool proof and secure and private.
I was referring to the “no account creation required” and given how other online services seem to be doing fine with accounts I don’t think it is as big of a hurdle as you make it seem.
Of course automatic discovery of accounts based on phone numbers is a different topic, but there are also plenty of people who hate that feature (Telegram has a special feature to not allow that even).
deleted by creator
Session is a pretty good one in my opinion. Also matrix has some privacy related concerns with the amount of meta data being shared on every home server.
Briar?