I'm not sure which Matrix client you use, but clients like Riot don't even let you opt out of sending read receipts unless you edit `/etc/riot/config.json` to enable experiments and then go into the settings to disable read receipts. Problems like this (and issues like this [0]) give me the impression that Riot isn't designed for people who need privacy.

(Yes, there are other Matrix clients [1], but my understanding is that Riot is the flagship interface.)

[0]: https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/8961

[1]: https://www.matrix.org/clients/

Hopefully none of that changes now that they've been acquired by zoom.

Keybase claims that it is, but it's a lie that nobody verified: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/222055/how-can-...

If you did not delete the Signal directory on your phone then there should be some old backups with your messages there. These will be encrypted so you will need to original password to unencrypt them.

Also KaiOS and the like are making chat feasible even on feature phones.

Don't get me wrong, RCS will be a fine enough fallback (once it's E2E), but standardized chat is the dream.

Is there a plan for RCS to be E2E? Given that RCS went under the GSMA umbrella in 2008, and it's 2020 and adoption is minimal, I don't have any hopes for a future update that supports E2E to come out any time sooner than 2040, with handsets supporting it in 2050, and all endpoints supporting it in 2065; Google will have released about 30 more messangers by then, of course.

For an example of where this works really well, look at how all of their adaptive UI efforts feed into each other:

* The enhancements to multiwindow that were built for foldables became Android's desktop mode, to the point that it was built specifically as a test environment and now underpins DeX etc

* Desktop mode's only hardware requirement is a display output, suggesting in addition that Android apps as a whole are no longer bound to specific 1:1 relationships of UI and form factor. (This is, imo, a much bigger deal than we're making it out to be, and opens up possibilities ranging from hybrid game consoles to mobile content creation to better takes at mobile-powered VR.)

* The existence of a base OS implementation and the fact that it's controlled by the system launcher, a component the user can rip and replace, pretty much ensures that custom ROM communities are already toying with this

* Android supports PWAs - installable, natively-scalable webapps - meaning that when desktop mode inevitably stops being feature-flagged there will be examples of convergent apps that work on day 1

* Desktop support for Android apps enhances those same apps when used on ChromeOS

* Flutter, the toolkit built for Fuchsia - an OS designed from the ground up with this sort of scalability in mind - is capable of targeting all of the above

I think what Google needs to do is to seperate the messaging protocol from the messaging software. The protocol needs network effects. The software doesn't. That's why shutting down Google Inbox didn't kill email and it's why any new experiments with email software can benefit from the network effects that email protocols already have.

If the one thing so far that's led the feds to threaten this is that they wanted to build a modern protocol for cross-service messaging, then there's no sane reason we couldn't have asked for that exact thing as a spec.

Google is adding an implementation into Messages, and it's honestly not a critical problem if OS vendors are supporting it at that level, but there's still too much we don't know about it imo. Will that be supported by iOS, if and when it supports RCS at all? Will it work for third-party clients, if and when Android gets APIs?

I'm not sure how much optimism I have that this will be anything other than a fragmented mess in the short term.

Which basically means, instead of having a federated mess as designed to replace the federated mess of SMS and MMS, we'll get a Google mess, maybe. But if Google was any good at making messenger apps, maybe enough people would use one of them that it wouldn't be killed.

Also how XMPP could have been that spec, if Google hadn't decided when launching (the first version of) Hangouts to go full Ayn Rand while doing it.

If Signal introduces a new feature, it knows that all users’ devices will support that feature, because its own software is the only game in town.

[Yes, you could manually compile it and update it... which is what I did for the first year I used signal, until it expired on me with no warning while I was away on a trip and had no way to update it.]

Oooooh, I've got some bad news for you.

That was a couple months ago. Maybe it has improved massively since then? I guess I'll try it again later this year.

But, also this experience may not have been possible before may (when they released a big update with e2ee by default).

So like three weeks.

They wrote:

> That was a couple months ago.

And in a sibling comment I also confirmed the issues before the new encryption stuff, but no issues after (not with the encryption part at least).

Have you checked if yours is up to date?

I can use e.g. KDE Connect when my phone is on to send SMS messages from my desktop, but then they won't appear in Signal, unfortunately.

During the past month I've seen more errors and hiccups. Like delays. I assume that's just a scaling issue.

But I do have election apps. They just eat away resources.

Check out its network traffic sometime.

For Push, whatever app you use needs to have a push server that talks through to Apple/Google if you use their push. For Riot, that server is run by the New Vector (vector.im), the outfit which makes Riot.

The network traffic should make this very clear.

I just fired up Riot 1.6.2, the latest available from the site.

It makes three connections, one each to matrix.org, vector.im, and riot.im on startup.

Even after removing application settings and preferences, it connects to all three of those on startup, just sitting at the login screen, not signed in to anything. I didn't opt in, and I didn't look anything up; it was automatic (and silent!) on a blank install.

That's completely unacceptable, and counts as telemetry to three separate parties, whether intentional or not.

The local app should not send any traffic whatsoever when launched and sitting at the login/signup screen. It should make a connection to the homeserver chosen to log in to, and that server alone.

I just filed it as a bug again: https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/13942

I never had a single one of those you listed here.

How is rotating photos properly not a priority for a messaging app? It's really annoying to have half your photos rotated sideways, and it screams "buggy app" to both participants of the conversation.

At this point I'd say you desperately look for something to complain about. Why don't you just not use it and check your PC? There is obviously something wrong with it.

How would you even take a photo in landscape using the desktop?

And I don't know what you mean by screen lock if it's not the lock screen. However, as I said: the photos are properly oriented within the app so whatever your issue is, it can't be that urgent...

Seriously... I do not understand how they keep investing in this gold-plating when the plumbing keeps getting clogged up.

EDIT: Those are two different people.

My 6 year old son just discovered the augmented-reality tricks in the LINE app (adding a mustache, hair, glasses, sound effects etc). He got my mother (68) to install it and now they use it pretty much for all their video conversations. This replaced FaceTime, despite FaceTime having better sound and picture quality (edit: and even some effects).

He's in the age (and COVID-19 environment) where he starts speaking to cousins and friends online. So I imagine LINE spreading pretty quickly in similar circles based on those features alone. That's the stuff that drives adoption, as silly as it might be.

That said, yes, the plumbing needs to be in working order, or no silly feature can cover over the leaks (or smell, if we're going with the metaphor).

Unfortunately not. If most of my friends and family favour mustaches and effects (which seems to be the case, I would imagine as a general rule), and I favour security (the minority, as a general rule?), then I won't be able to talk to them securely.

I use WhatsApp to people who don't care about security, and I can only be contacted by Signal for business stuff.