Alternative to signal?

[Adam Hudson]

Hey guys. Any of you use secure messaging platforms that don't require a phone number to use? I like signal, but I don't want something that takes over my phone number and causes me to lose texts if I'm not connected to internet (which is quite often). Essentially looking for a secure alternative to email. Something akin to what the desktop version of signal provides.

Any of you have success with a platform like that? 

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Thank you,

Adam Hudson

[Gibson Prichard]

WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, but it is owned by facebook, so if that bothers you, then it might not be your jam.

Gibson Prichard

Nashville, TN

gib...@prichard.tv

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[Adam Hudson]

Actually: I just remembered Vince's presentation on PGP, which would likely fit my use case. Vince, was that presentation recorded? Would be worth a share if so. 

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[Tilghman Lesher]

My suggestion to get around this is to register for a (free) number on
Google Voice, and then use that number exclusively with that platform.
I happen to use Telegram, but Signal should be fine.

On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 6:56 PM Adam Hudson <adamstua...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

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Tilghman

[Adam Hudson]

Hey  Tilghman, I just looked up Telegram and it actually looks like a cool encrypted chat feature.  I wasn't looking for a chat initially, but checking it out now I think I could see myself using this.  Have you had a positive experience with this platform overall?  Do you find it secure?  Also: do you use anything for encrypted voice and/or video calls?

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[Adam Hudson]

Also: That google voice suggestion for signal does sound like a solid idea.  

[Tilghman Lesher]

Not only do I use it for both work and friends, but I also have a bot
assigned through Telegram, through which I can programmatically send
messages to myself and other staff. The bot also integrates with 2FA,
such as with the Nextcloud system, so you can get your 2FA token from
a chat sent directly to your Telegram account.

This isn't the only platform that supports such things, but the
integration was fairly straightforward to implement.

On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 3:46 PM Adam Hudson <adamstua...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hey Tilghman, I just looked up Telegram and it actually looks like a cool encrypted chat feature. I wasn't looking for a chat initially, but checking it out now I think I could see myself using this. Have you had a positive experience with this platform overall? Do you find it secure? Also: do you use anything for encrypted voice and/or video calls?

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Tilghman

[Adam Hudson]

That's pretty cool actually. Thanks for sharing this man. I think I'm the immediate, your previous suggestion of using Google voice to authenticate against signal will suit my immediate needs. But I think down the line telegram may be where I go in the future for advanced use cases. Thanks for that recommendation!

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[Josh Lefler]

I ran a Matrix server for a while. I used the Riot (now called element) app and web app. 

It's security-first and not that hard to administer, but it's not super user friendly. You have a login then a separate encryption passphrase to be able to see your chat history on any new device. 

You can join their federation network for interoperable communication with users of other servers, but I never tried it.

Josh

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[Bucky Wolfe]

Maybe I missed it, but have keybase and cyph been mentioned? They both seem to be really well designed and vetted.

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