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The most secure app I know is SimpleX. It is like Matrix but without an identifier, so you really interacting only with people you want. No one can reach you unless you gave him a link to connect to you.
Two different people cannot be ensured they are talking to the same person since there is no identifier they can compare to.
Signal. I refuse to use whatsapp even though that's what most people I know use.
Delta Chat is awesome encrypted/secure messaging via imap and thus compatible with anyone who has an email address.
Conversations is an excellent XMPP client.
I really like using Signal Private Messenger app, but I can't get all my friends and family to use it, so for my regular texting app, I just use Chomp SMS.
Whatsapp is the norm here so I begrudgingly use that. Wish more people were on Signal, Matrix or Telegram.
You can apparently bridge Whatsapp and Matrix. I have looked into it for a few evenings but got nothing running despite having some experience with self hosting stuff. It was a while ago though.
Elements (Matrix) as much as much as possible. I bridge a lot services through it. Though Signal would be the second most.
With bridges, it's truly the one app to rule them all.
I use SMS and Matrix. I'd love to see something like Briar become more popular, or maybe XMPP make a resurgence as it's been a great federated chat protocol for a long while.
I would use Briar if it had an iOS app, i dont consider any messenger that is android-only a real option for my main messenger.
I mainly use Signal, but sometimes have to fall back to SMS for people that aren't on Signal. I also have matrix accounts, but I never really use them since I don't have anyone among my friends and family that uses matrix.
Signal
I dropped it when they decided to get rid of SMS. I don't want to be treated like I can't be trusted to be responsible for my own privacy and security. I understand the difference between an SMS and an encrypted Signal message and was fully aware of which contacts had Signal and which did not have it.
In my opinion they should have disabled SMS by default and made it an option with warnings to enable in the settings. They had already been doing borderline questionable things with crypto and the stories that I did not want in a messenger app... this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
I'm patiently waiting for a decent fork of Signal with SMS enabled, or a decent open source RCS client... unfortunately I landed on Google Messages for now.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I belive the reason why SMS was dropped was because of the unreliable interaction between two endpoints: If you're communicating with a contact over RCS in Google messages, and you'd send them a message over signal- they'd receive an SMS. But throttling reply would be over RCS and signal wouldn't be able to display that since there isn't an open API for signal to interact with RCS messages. So the whole reason to drop SMS support was due to inconsistencies of how messages in androids would be handled.
Basically, Signal could have implemented RCS messaging themselves, making them the de facto iMessage replacement on Android, but they chose not to so that their devs could instead spend their time building NFTs into their platform or whatever the next shiny bauble is.
I still use Signal for lack of a credible alternative but dropping SMS support in favour of NFTs and Stories was fucking dumb. They need to focus on being the best messaging platform first, then focus on expanding into other markets and functionality.
I wish more people in my life would use Signal but I've given up on converting people from WhatsApp.
I pretty much just use everything. my messaging folder has Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, SMS, etc lol.
I tried to migrate friends and family to Signal a couple of years back. Only managed with 3 people :/.
Unfortunately here (Italy), WhatsApp is too much widespread as reach out method now. Especially for businesses, from restaurants to, say, the family doctor.
Signal is my go to. Some of my friends refuse to download it, so I just text them. I'll use iMessage on iOS and Google Messages on Android. But if I can use Signal, I will
unfortunately it is whatsapp.. Had everyone move to signal, but it didn't last :(
For your friends and family, Signal is probably the best. It's simple to use and set up, unlike SimpleX which some might have trouble with. For people who refuse to switch, iMessage.
XMPP (with omemeo) is the classic (and also what FB messenger uses behind the scenes, without omemo), Matrix is the new kid on the block taking over. Both are decentralized sorta like the fediverse (but separate from said fediverse.)
Used to use Signal, but they're removing SMS support so everyone might as well switch to matrix. Wickr was bought by amazon (and they say they won't ruin it, riiiight), so that's out. Idk enough about briar or session, and telegram isn't as secure as people seem to think.
Waiting on SimpleX to have desktop client and sync to migrate from Signal. Meanwhile Molly and all the major platforms sadly
Telegram almost exclusively. I love thΓ© sheer number of features it offers and pay for Premium.