Session messenger android client currently feels unpolished while simplex seems to require it to run in the background for instant notifications. Is there an alternative that is better than those 2?
It depends on many things, such as a threat modeling, opsec, etc. In terms of privacy and security !simplex@lemmy.ml seems to be superior.
Several reasons to that:
- SimpleX doesn't have IDs, unlike Session. Which makes it more anonymous and private;
- Ofc things like E2E encryption, forward secrecy and others;
- Message mixing is and underrated feature, as well as content padding;
- It has amazing security features such as self-destruct passwords, and a couple of others;
- Can be self-hosted;
- No need for phone number;
- Leverage several 'accounts';
I have read their white paper, and is worth the time. Also, one of the episodes of the Opt Out podcast is with the SimpleX creator. I suggest listening. I personally liked the way he conceptualizes decentralization, and problematozes protocols.
I found SimpleX to be the best of all private messengers. Better than Session, Signal, XMPP, DeltaChat, and others. It is also more convenient than Briar and Threema.
Define your criteria for an ideal messenger. What do you need actually? What's your security requirement?
Probably something that does not require a phone number while still using google firebase notification system? Basically a less buggy version of session messenger.
google firebase notification system
Why though? If a app has its own implementation this is a non issue really.
To save battery life I suppose. Also some phones may kill a background app even when told not to thus preventing messages from being received.
may kill a background app even when told not to
Most of the time this can disabled somewhere in the app permissions. i have done this for a couple of apps without much issue.
Their is briar. It is fully decentralized and works p2p over for.
From my understanding briar requires both clients to be online at the same time to use?
Normally yes. But they also have mailbox application that kind of acts as a message queue both ways
Other alternatives: Status(https://status.app), speek!(https://speek.network), Briar(https://briarproject.org), Cwtch(https://cwtch.im) and Tox(https://tox.chat/index.html).