Privacy @lemmy.ml ride @monero.town 8 mo. ago

SimpleX Chat: Private and Secure messaging

cross-posted from: https://monero.town/post/934733

SimpleX Chat

Private and Secure messaging platform without user IDs

Will this new messenger replace Signal?

Watch on Youtube

by Evgeny Poberezkin

Monero @monero.town ride @monero.town 8 mo. ago

34 comments

Permanently Deleted
- If I recall correctly, SimpleX came out of the development of a file-transfer protocol, similar to torrenting.
  
  It's been probably a year since I read up on what they were doing, and I've been running it on a couple devices.
  
  I keep it around as a backup chat tool. Sadly I can't get people away from SMS, but I also use Signal and Telegram. Each has its pros and cons.
  
  Permanently Deleted
- I think the spammers won't be a problem for this service, only if you're in a public group, but then I must ask, why didn't you use incognito mode ? Let the spammers spam the temporary profile..
  
  Telegram had to remove commenting as a channel, ( well they gave it to premium users ) ( which makes you question their "we care about your safety" claim )...
  
  But I never saw anything like this, if Incognito mode is on, every account link you share creates a fake account
  
  Also I think public rooms are limited to 50 or 100, I'm not sure
  
  Permanently Deleted
Oof, bad timing for that name selection. Especially with payment processing.

The invitation method is interesting, but will likely be its limiting factor vs its draw. Regular Jane/Joe wants to share their username, just not their number or email. Not being able to share verbally is tough.
- Simplex has been out for a year or so.
  
  It's tough getting people used to systems that respect privacy, since Out-of-band ID sharing is part of that.
- I've found it easier to get contacts though the QR code
i like the whole concept but it seamed to good to be true and not some type of backdoored honeypot, ill guess ill check it out when enough people reviewed the sourcecode
- Well, since it was audited quite awhile ago you could probably check it out now.
  
  simplex.chat/blog/20221108-simplex-chat-v4.2-security-audit-new-website.html
- back when I was using reddit, whenever it would be posted in /r/privacy or /r/privacyguides it would get like 30 or 40 upvotes in a matter of minutes. for a service that came seemingly out of nowhere, it really felt suspicious to me.
  
  Permanently Deleted
  
  I think that's because it's the content for privacy subs. Now that it had been audited and privacyguides recommends it I put my trust into SimpleX
TLDR via notegpt

🚀 Simplex Chat: A private and secure messaging platform without user identifiers.

💡 Founder's story: The startup was founded in 2021, with ideas dating back to late 2019.

🌐 Join the group: Interested viewers can join the conference group to ask questions and try out the platform.

💰 Privacy and cost: Lack of privacy in messaging platforms can cost users real money.

🔒 Designing for privacy: Simplex Chat's design removes the need for user identities, providing a high level of application-level anonymity.

⚙️ Usability and future plans: Simplex Chat aims to be as usable as popular messengers while addressing the challenges of establishing connections and transfer anonymity.

🌐 Future evolution: The network is evolving into a two-hop mix network to further protect IP addresses and enhance session isolation.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Watch on Youtube

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Is it a simple chat app or something like Telegram with channels and groups support?
- It doesn't have channels, only groups. It's more like Signal with no phone number req but with worse UX as a trade off
  
  Permanently Deleted
  
  I like the UX, it's not the best one for sure ( I find the side menu style outdated ), but at least you can pick your colors
  
  Signal only ask for a phone number to verify your identity... its far from private
- It's more or less truly anonymous chat. Like you meet someone on the street and need to chat with them, but don't want to give them any personally identifiable info. It's really cool in concert, but good luck getting anyone to use it. Signal is good enough if you're paranoid. TBH Telegram secret chats are just as good for sensitive stuff and way easier to get folks to use.
SimpleX exists

Briar : he copied my whole flow, word for word, bar for bar

😄
...so, Briar, but new?
- Permanently Deleted
  
  I've never used their forums. Only used it as 1:1 messaging. Worked great.
No link to a repo? I'm not going to watch a video to know what a project does or how it does it. No thanks.
- https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat
  
  Thanks.
  
  So it has a new ID for each tunnel/channel/whatever. As usual, that comes with the downside of discoverability: how do you find all your contacts when installing the app? You always need an out of band transfer of the user ID - be it email, username, or a transient one like this.
  
  I'm not sure how much better that is than existing chat apps that don't have discoverability.

You've viewed 34 comments.