I am really struggling to replace facebook messenger / whatsapp for a few casual conversations. My friends and I are all wanting to move away. We are not heavy users of this but need it to work. I think the requirements are:
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floss client for android, linux, windows
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persistent history across devices
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reasonable security
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don’t need to self host server
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can send a message to offline user, they get it when they come online
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not tied to or reliant on phone number / cell service
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ETA: end user documentation explaining how to set up and common troubleshooting
tried:
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matrix: the thing with having to keep track of room keys and stuff is too complicated. every time someone uses a new device it is a ton of issues and we could never quite get it ironed out
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signal: tied to phone number, no history across devices
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xmpp: similar to matrix the key situation is confusing, also no cross device history
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ETA: simpleX: a lot of people here are mentioning simpleX. It didn’t come up in previous investigations so will give it a shot.
- ETA 2: It doesn’t seem to have persistent history across devices. Clarification?
I actually didn’t think this would be such a problem but it is breaking us. we don’t need a lot of sophisticated features like voice, video, moderation, 1000s of participants, spam protection etc that seem to be of concern to the projects. just simple text chat.
I have a feeling you are overthinking the Matrix key system.
Basically it’s just another password, just one you probably can’t remember.
Most of the client apps support verifying a new session by scanning a QR code or by comparing emoji. The UX of these could be better (I can never find the emoji option on Element, but it’s there…). So if you have your phone signed in, just verify the sessions with that. And it’s not like most people sign in on new devices all the time.
I’d give Matrix a new look if I were you.