Now Signal announced they’re stopping SMS support for Android, what are your alternatives?
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I’ve replaced Signal with SimpleX, and for SMS I use Simple SMS Messenger.
I just tried SimpleX, seems a very nice tool! I even got it to install onto my Linux PC, easy, like stealing a baby it’s porridge! Thanks for the advice.
Still have to find a person to use it with. And to research how the telephony is working with the CLI App.
Old signal client:)
This will eventually stop working, so isn’t a long-term solution, sadly.
@epso A good alternative I recommend would be Simple SMS Messenger. They don’t have internet access but also heed that SMS itself is still insecure but limiting as much data being acquired helps in the long run.
Matrix / element or XMPP. I’ve been using it for years now both for friends / fam, and for group chats.
I think OP is not looking for an encrypted chat but rather looking for a replacement app to send unencrypted SMS messages (and store them encrypted on the device) like Signal has done since it was called TextSecure and is finally going to stop doing now.
ohhh gotcha my bad.
Well what I liked about signal was the locked access and encrypted database to protect any on-device SMS messages from snooping if I lost my phone or having an interaction with the authorities as you can’t be forced to give up a password (as opposed to finger print).
So I looked for a fork of signal and found ***Silence on F-Droid. ** *
It has both those features. Again, I’m not using it to encrypt messages E2E… I’m looking at on device security
I remember silence. It was good, but havent gotten any updates in like 2 years.
I just installed it. Looks great 👍
Yes! Silence! This is what Signal was before all the googleization, works like a charm. The most significant problem is: Where do you find people to change encrypted SM using Silence? I have just ONE fried who is using silence.
Signal is moving away from the SMS protocol, AFAIK. Is this right?
@i18nde @Unfunnyryan yes it is. I need to find some alternatives to signal
Signal wasn’t using the SMS protocol. They were using the Signal protocol. They’re droping support for using the app as an SMS client. I think than nobody should be using SMSs nowdays so that’s good.
No one should, but sooooo many Americans are. I don’t have a single person using Silence for E2E messages. Nor did I really have any friends using signal, either. But for myself I was looking for on device encryption and password protected app usage. I wish I had friends using either… But they all have iPhones and use iMessage.
Oof. That sucks. :(
Stop using SMS?
SMS works where internet does not.
There are many places where the data connection is either not available, or hideouly unreliable. In many rural areas, especially in poorer countries but also in wealthy ones, you can still have cell signal but no data, and SMS still works without data.
Let them eat cake.
Very real. I work in remote places where I have to find high ground, stand on my truck, and hold my phone as high as possible just to get SMS in/out. There is no reason to expect there will ever be anymore towers up there, so data or even calls are a no go.