Interesting project, but last time I tried it was battery hungry, and having made quite an effort to get some of my contacts on Signal, I don't see it happen to get them all on SimpleXChat. And Signal Stickers make Signal more attractive for some.
I think it's just that there are too many options and the communities are so fragmented. I'm trying out simplex but it still feels like beta software. Regardless I'd like to see it succeed so we have a real private alternative that doesn't rely on big tech or shady government sponsorship.
But wouldn't that mean if someone writes to your desktop profile you can't respond on mobile and vice versa? And you would have to be added by everyone else twice too?
You just never use a desktop profile. You have an account on mobile, and every time you go desktop you sign in with the app and qr code so you're always using the same db on each machine.
My desktop app has zero profiles and no db; I only sign in with my mobile.
For a while, it was only CLI and not even listen on the project's main page - it was only linked on its Github. But now there is a GUI in several forms and it is listed on the main page, so kind of interested where it all goes.
There is a desktop app but linking is not as easy and featured as Session, which is really easy to use on multiple devices, but then you lose the superior security of SimpleX
Desktop is a first-class app (not dependent on a mobile app), no phone number required, and syncing chats between all your devices just works.
Wire hasn't been updated in 2 years on fdroid tho, so I'm eager to switch to something else. But nothing else exists that meets these basic usability reqs.
Because when you read their website https://simplex.chat/ and they say stuff like "Possibility of MITM > NO" and "Central component or other network-wide attack > No - resilient" they kind lose their credibility.
Also, "Other apps have user IDs (...) SimpleX does not, not even random numbers." > there must be an ID at some point. When you invite someone with a QR code or a link that effectively becomes an ID - even if it changes for every invitation. Also servers need to coordinate message delivery, some form of ID is required for that.
The way the messaging queues work and what the servers see is interesting but I'm yet to dig into that.
Yea, my main concern for now is that most people are using default servers. Good thing their servers are very easy to host, but still, power of the default. I would really like to see lists of public servers, like what we see now for XMPP and Matrix. The thing is still young, so looking forward.
I self-host too, that wasn't the problem, it's that there is the power of the default. Just like with Matrix. You can ask a friend to use your server or another one and delete the main ones entirely, but chances are you won't be avoiding them in a random chatroom.
What does their multi-device story look like? Can I use one identity/account on multiple devices, with synced read state etc?
Edit: Looks like it's being worked on. I don't want to use a messenger without this feature anymore, but I'll give SimpleX another look once it's done.
XMPP as a protocol was great. But the problems the servers had, the mess is just a no go.
SimpleX is far better in privacy and usability in my opinion. I doubt XMPP will recover anytime soon.
Simple answer to the question so far as I can see: in order to connect with someone, you have to video conference with them and show them a code. So the anonymity is only as anonymous as the video conference you use to do that. All of the benefits it claims are merely an illusion.
What really bothers me about Session is that you effectively cannot selfhost - hosting a node is prohibitively expensive. So seems like the only people who can realistically host a node are crypto bros, big companies and government agencies. Thanks, I would rather stick with IRC/XMPP/Matrix.
unified push works as a stand in for gms on devices without it. it runs in the background & receive the wakeup pings for the apps (in this case simplex) so you only need one websocket open instead of a different background service for each app. hugely reduces battery use.
Does that work without google services? I thought this was why signal said they wouldn't remove gapps depends, and all privacy apps do pull instead of push?
simplex.chat
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