[toomanybeersies]

Any app that gives my peers even an inkling of what I'm doing without me explicitly sending that information gives me the heebie jeebies.

I've gone back to using SMS for messaging these days. No more read receipts, no more "last active 10 minutes ago", no more "Alice is nearby!", and no more "you haven't messaged Bob in a while, send a message?".

Sure SMS is insecure, but at least it doesn't drive me insane with all the bullshit of so many messaging apps.

[godelski]

Why not use Signal and turn off read receipts (and typing indicators and previews)? Then you don't have the SMS insecurities (which reveals your locations) and the other metadata issues? That seems to actually fit all your criteria.

[foo92691]

Bad news about "plain SMS" -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services

[hansel_der]

Bad news about RCS: It's comming soon(TM) for the last 13years