[webmobdev]

Most people haven't even heard of https://jami.net/discover/ ... and that's the problem with messengers - you have to educate your social network and coax them to use the same product or you will be forever stuck with Facebook Messenger / WhatApp, iMessage et al.

[meruru]

Riot.im and the broader Matrix ecosystem are doing pretty well. Matrix was even adopted by the French government for internal communications.

I tried Jami when it was called Ring and I couldn't figure it out after some fumbling with the app and skimming of the website. If I can't figure it out how can I expect nontechnical people to? That was one of the reasons why I ended up adopting Riot/Matrix back then and have been pushing it since, but I'm still interested in alternative communication systems if they can bring any benefits to the table. Does Jami bring any?

[beatgammit]

My problem with Riot specifically and Matrix generally is that the adoption process isn't very gentle. Yes they have bridges, but my experience has been that they're way more pain than they're worth, especially if you're the odd one out.

The thing I like about Signal is that I can use it for regular texts as well as encrypted communications. Instead of converting all of my friends at once (or even just a significant subset), I can just replace my texting app with Signal and get my friends to move over one as a time.

I tried that with Riot, but it just didn't work out. I tried the Slack bridge, but it required admin access on the Slack server (fortunately I had that at the time) and only one channel could be created at a time, which was tedious. That's not Riot's fault, but it's not particularly important who is at fault.

I want to replace some app with Riot and slowly phase everything else in, but nothing really gave me the confidence to do so. I heard rumors that they were planning to support VoIP, but this doesn't seem to extend to making/receiving regular calls or texts, but merely providing audio and video chat along with their regular text service. Maybe that has changed (I check back periodically), but unless it solves a problem that doesn't require me to convince everyone else to switch, I'm probably not going to make the effort.

And that's why I like Signal. It's not the best secure messaging system out there, but it's a drop in replacement for something I use today and doesn't require me to get everyone to switch at once.

[meruru]

>The thing I like about Signal is that I can use it for regular texts as well as encrypted communications.

Can you expand on that? I'm afraid I don't quite understand the advantage here. Also, have you tried Silence for sending encrypted SMS?

[cmroanirgo]

I presume they meant that the app sends a normal unencrypted message to clients without Signal. (The user is clearly informed when this will happen). This means you can use Signal as your default SMS app and as your friends start adopting Signal, you'll automatically start sending encrypted messages. It's how I'm using it and appreciate it.

[meruru]

That's what Silence does. It is in fact the SMS part of Signal standalone.

[xingped]

How does Jami compare to Wire and Riot? My friends and I are comparing various apps right now and trying to figure out which has the best usability and fit for ourselves.

[meruru]

What did you think of Wire vs Riot?

[akvadrako]

Indeed, I had never heard of it until this comment. If you want more people to notice it, someone just submitted it:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20311324