[nasredin]

"necessary to sign up with your phone number"

Just want to plug Tox: https://tox.chat/

I recommend "Isotoxin" client.

It is server-less, no phone numbers required (Sorry NSA :( )

I looked at all the "secure" chat clients (Facebook, WhatsApp, Riot, Matrix, etc.) and Tox seems to be the only one that is SECURE (read: encrypted) and more importantly PRIVACY-FOCUSED (no phone numbers & central servers).

After ICQ, MSN, AIM, XMPP, Jabber, GoogleTalk, etc. I learned my lesson: Not gonna trust any single entity EVER! No matter how "secure" they say they are.

[DiThi]

> and Tox seems to be the only one that is SECURE (read: encrypted) and more importantly PRIVACY-FOCUSED (no phone numbers & central servers).

I wouldn't bet on that just yet. Tox is not secure right now. [0]

For now Riot (Matrix) through Tor fills this purpose nicely. It's completely encrypted end to end, and Tor avoids being identified from metadata. It does use servers, but you can choose any of the public servers available[1] or create one yourself and have people use it for plausible deniability (while you use it through Tor). There's interest in making Tor-only Matrix servers that can communicate with regular servers[2] but I think Matrix clients through Tor is secure enough.

Also, allowing using phone numbers for authentication is in my opinion very important for a service to reach some level of popularity (and therefore more work put into it, more audits, and not having to use a gazillion of clients yourself, etc). Riot main server has it but of course it's not required at all.

[0] https://github.com/TokTok/c-toxcore/issues/426

[1] https://www.hello-matrix.net/public_servers.php

[2] https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/2111

[dogma1138]

The problem that unless you are going to blow up the Empire State Building it's very hard to convince people to use yet another not to mention switch to a different messaging app.

What happens is that the person who does it effectively being cut out of the loop with maybe a handful of their contacts becoming partial converts that might serve as human routers for a while.

WhatsApp and Signal work because they are easy they are mom/grandpa proof and they have a huge user base.

[bmn__]

> After […] XMPP, Jabber […] I learned my lesson: Not gonna trust any single entity EVER!

Those are not single entity, but federated.

[cheshire_cat]

Have you had a look at GNU Ring? It's also decentralized (except the name server but you don't have to use it) and works better for me than tox.

https://ring.cx/