Messengers

Instant Messaging systems we use everyday like Whatsapp or Telegram are very useful, but I would like to criticize them anyway. Most of the problems they have stem from the fact that they are controlled by a single entity:

• Centralization: These messengers are centralized: they function over a single server. That means that in case of failure, the entire service can be disabled, which, in Whatsapp's case, last happened in April 2024. More importantly, if the owner of a centralized messenger decides it's no longer profitable, then it's lights out and you have to look for the next option.

• Closed source code: Most of the time, the sources of these messengers are not made public. It means that there is no way to know what happens to our data and especially metadata: Are they stored? Sold to third parties? For which purpose? You can only blindly trust the operators they go easy on your data (or not care).

• Owner's backing: Theses apps are not free because of sheer philanthropy… but rather because selling personal data, serving ads or exposing you to other services serve the interests of the megacorps that own them. Choosing a messenger is choosing who you back.

It's been a long time I stopped using anything that Meta offers (Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger), since it's not hard to convince oneself that it's one of the worst company around (and funnily one of the most successful). And after having recommended it several years ago to my friends, I let go of Telegram: It's one of the only one that doesn't encrypt messages end-to-end by default. Plus, its source code is closed, which makes it a messenger that's not reasonable to use.

The only popular messenger that I use now is Signal. It has problems but it's open source and is operated by the Signal Technology Foundation, a nonprofit charity (funny how big a difference that makes). One big drawback is that you support Signal's contractors by using it, which happens to be AWS (Amazon Web Services)¹.

It has to be said that they have the great benefit of being popular and easy to use, but to me that's not enough on its own to justify their unconditional use. That's why I use decentralized messengers as well:

• Snikket (XMPP): The open protocol XMPP (also sometimes called Jabber to complicate things further) is not owned by a single entity, that's why it's not unified and thus not popular. The Snikket Foundation tries to remedy this by offering a cohesive XMPP system that's easy to use, called Snikket. You need to have access to a Snikket (or XMPP) server, which some communities offer (like some universities or tchncs.de for example), rent or host one yourself.

• Delta Chat: Based on email and very promising, it's very fast to get going (thanks to the new chatmail servers) and it improves quickly. The developers take ease of use and privacy very seriously which makes it a messenger that's easy to recommend.

Aren't you making your life harder by using only Signal and such?

That's right :]
But that's a compromise I want to make and it's also not that hard, since most of my friends use Signal already, with the coolest among them using even Delta Chat!