Ask HN: What Chat Services Don't Require a Smartphone?

1 points by davzie 3y ago ↗ HN

In an effort to disconnect myself from the internet more, I'm back to using a simpler dumbphone. WhatsApp and Signal both require me to have a smartphone to link my Mac / iPad apps to. Are there any chat services that do not require this? I am happy to perform manual SMS verification.

3 comments

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jaclaz 3y ago ↗

Seemingly there is a way to use some sort of Android emulator for running the Android version on WhatsApp, verification is either via SMS (that your dumbphone should be able to receive or - if that fails - via voice call).

Still you will need to run this "Bluestacks" emulator (or whatever it is).

Some informations are here:

https://www.techbout.com/use-whatsapp-on-pc-without-mobile-p...

usdogu 3y ago ↗

Check out https://getsession.org/

stop50 3y ago ↗

Matrix is an federated chat service, but it requires internet like most others. on the plus side it has its own standard and there are even tui clients.