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Ask HN: Any HN recommentadion for secure and private instant messaging?

9 points by lemonjohn ↗ HN
I know, there was already a plenty related topics. Telegram is hated everywhere, WhatsApp is not that bad, but still not good enough. Signal is promising, but lacks of desktop client -- Chrome app is likely a temporary solution and still, Android smartphone is required in order to use it. Tox probably is not worth mentioning now.

So, is there any alternative nowadays? Especially ones that does not require zomg smartphones other than XMPP+OTR combination? Nice to have Linux or web client.

Don't want to start a flame war or something.

10 comments

[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 25.6 ms ] thread
pknight
Wire is cross platform and works quite well. Since using it I've noticed steady improvements. I do notice that messaging apps take up quite a bit of battery on mobile.
tedmiston
Have you looked at Cyber Dust? It was created by Mark Cuban for secure communications after having his email messages taken out of context in court. They have mobile apps, not sure if desktop clients exist yet.
lemonjohn
Is there any web client? As far as I can see it is only available on Android and iOS. Unfortunately I don't use any of them.
tedmiston
It does not seem like there is a web client yet.
serje
how about slack? a lot of people are using it
pcvarmint
Linphone is the one I use. It has clients for all major OSes.

There's also Jitsi and Pidgin, but I haven't tried them lately.

lemonjohn
With Pidgin you can use many protocols, including ICQ or almost forgotten XMPP that's still not that bad choice (in combination with OTR). Aim of this discussion is which protocol gives the best chances for secure and private communication with E2EE.

Would be cool to see Web client for Signal that do not depends on Android app.

serje
Also if you like privacy you shold try BBM(blackberry messenger) also if you doubt about the privacy of BBM check this link https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-f...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/27/pakistan-...

http://thenextweb.com/me/2010/08/28/5-countries-that-will-or...

you can install it on android, iOS even on desktop with some android emulator

runjake
Two of the articles you linked to are from 2011 or prior. Since then, it's been demonstrated that BBM can be intercepted.

Just a couple weeks ago, a Blackberry executive publicly criticized Apple for not assisting law enforcement when it came to mobile device security.

And if that isn't enough to cause you concern, Blackberry is in big trouble. Who's going to buy them? What are they going to do with all that data?

lemonjohn
That's why I'm looking for IM with E2EE enabled by default. So I use OTR but not many want to play with sharing secrets, question and answers or any other method of authentication, not mentioning fingerprint verification.