Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and native clients?
13 points by mellamoyo 9 years ago | 16 commentsSo far, I haven't found anything that meets both major requirements, everything has a drawback. I want to like Signal, but the lack of desktop clients is a major drawback (and the Chrome extension isn't quite there yet--no iOS support, weird firewall requirements).
So what are you all using? Are you happy with what you're using?
- zurn 9 years agoTerminology nit: s/encrypted/secure/ - lots of systems that have encryption are pretty insecure.
As to the question, how about OTR+XMPP or Signal. Signal desktop is in beta. I don't think you need to worry about running the desktop Chrome extension on iOS since there's a native iOS app too?
- mellamoyo 9 years agoI'll have to look into OTR+XMPP. I was hoping for something straightforward for non-technical folks to use as well. Any recommendations on clients?
What I meant by iOS/Chrome is that you currently can't setup the desktop (Chrome) app with an iOS device, it's Android only.
- cyphar 9 years agoOTR has issues in instant messaging (if the messages arrive out-of-order you have to restart the session). Also, OTR's security is session based while Axolotl's is message based (Axolotl is an improvement on OTR that Signal uses).
- cyphar 9 years ago
- mellamoyo 9 years ago
- zbuf 9 years agoWe ssh into a box and run unix "talk" ...
More seriously, is there a reason for native? Just it's a fairly arbitrary request without more detail, since a network connection is needed anyway. eg. WhatsApp web client is good enough that it 'feels' native.
- pullany 9 years agoI'm very happy with Threema (even though there's no Desktop client yet), and I'd certainly never use Signal because it's backed by the US government: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8106721
- mauropolli 9 years ago+1 for Threema. The servers are located in Switzerland, it's a good iOS citizen with a clean interface, and it offers some unique features (e.g., polling).
- mauropolli 9 years ago
- dbof 9 years agoSignal now has a desktop version which runs with Google Chrome: https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop/
- implicit_none 9 years agoSpiderOak is currently developing "Semaphor"; an end-to-end, zero-knowledge collaboration platform with native clients on mobile and desktop: https://spideroak.com/solutions/semaphor
- threesixandnine 9 years agoSignal?
- ryck 9 years agoWhat's wrong with Telegram?
- mellamoyo 9 years agoNo private chats for Windows/Linux.
- skrowl 9 years agoI'd also recommend Telegram.
Whether or not secret (end-to-end encrypted) chats are implemented is up to the client's author.
Not having secret chats in Telegram Desktop was a decision of the author - https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/5
They work in cutegram (qt based client. OS X, Linux, Windows, OpenBSD, Arch AUR, etc) - http://aseman.co/en/products/cutegram/
They work in the pidgin plugin (which works on all of the platforms supported by Pidgin) - https://github.com/majn/telegram-purple#readme
They also work in telegram CLI (which many bots are based on) - https://github.com/vysheng/tg
- skrowl 9 years ago
- mellamoyo 9 years ago
- blindrooster 9 years agoself hosted IRC
- skrowl 9 years agoSince OP mentioned mobile, which IRC client would you recommend on Android. Maintaining a persistent connection is battery draining. Weechat + https://www.glowing-bear.org is what I've been using but you don't get notifications that way.
- skrowl 9 years ago
- Synaesthesia 9 years agoiMessage has end-to-end encryption.
- skrowl 9 years agoNo mobile client (for Android or Windows Phone), no desktop client (for Windows or Linux).
- skrowl 9 years ago