Why don't people here love SimpleXChat more?

SimpleX Chat Ltd is a seed stage startup with a lot of user growth in 2022-2023, and a lot of exciting technical and product problems to solve to grow faster.

Run by a VC funded for-profit company. That really should tell you all you need to know. Sorry, but no thanks.

My friends barely want to use Signal. There's no chance they're using something else.

"Hang on let me write down my QR code"

Usernames exist for a reason, especially in chat apps. Not having usernames is only going to severely limit your target demographic. And if nobody uses your app does it's benefits even matter?

I'd definitely use it if my friends were using it. Sadly, I can't even get them to use signal.

Never heard and don't know any users. I suspect I'm not alone.

If I want a simple chat protocol, I use IRC or XMPP. These are battle proven by time. If I want a really secure protocol, I use Signal or Matrix. These are endored by many security experts who their shit when they assess protocols, crypto and solutions.

SimpleX may be a good alternative for anonymous communication, but there is plenty options out there. Considering how many startups are funded by cheap VC money, and the business model is always "provide something awesome, and once you have enough traction - enshittify it" makes me very weary of investing myself in new solutions no matter how open-source the are.

I may sound bitter and skeptic, but I've seen this pattern has been repeated many times over.

I don't trust for profit venture capital funding, if you want to see where it ends up just Look at how telegram or wickr transitions from being "open" and free to getting stripped of features only to have them become paid only and the wickr sold off to Amazon and ended all non business support...the business model for making a profit off chat applications is bad for users.

Also now that signal supports usernames I have no reason to use anything else even for people I wouldn't want having my real number.

I've been a fan of SimpleX for a while now. Privacy comes at the cost of convenience, and SimpleX is the most private messaging platform according to this spreadsheet.

Any chat protocol without full mutli-device support is not really an option for me https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/issues/444.

In F-Droid, after disabling all anti-features, SimpleX still is listed. Signal never will be due to connecting to GCM or Firebase. Molly is an improvement for Signal but not for untrackable privacy like SimpleX from using a different ID with each individual SimpleX contact.

I liked the fact that it is really easy to self-host.

I tried it with friends on discord and in 10min I had a vps with a server running.

@SolarPunker@slrpnk.net I've not heard of anyone who does "not like" it? Many don't know about it maybe. I can't think of anything I've seen against it as it ticks most of the boxes for excellent privacy and has been very usable for me.

Interesting project, but last time I tried it was battery hungry, and having made quite an effort to get some of my contacts on Signal, I don't see it happen to get them all on SimpleXChat. And Signal Stickers make Signal more attractive for some.

Does it have forward/future security?

I think it's just that there are too many options and the communities are so fragmented. I'm trying out simplex but it still feels like beta software. Regardless I'd like to see it succeed so we have a real private alternative that doesn't rely on big tech or shady government sponsorship.

After Signal dropped SMS support, most of my friends jumped ship. No way they're using this.

SimpleX is great but not ready for prime time.

I use it as a copy paste buffer on my different devices. I run into issues with sending media sometimes.

Adding people at a distance is a huge pain in the ass with long codes, that needs a solution before the app can be used by normal people.

Seems like another one of those mobile only messengers, not really interested in those to be honest.

Never tried it. But I use Element, which is based on the Matrix protocol.

Because when you read their website https://simplex.chat/ and they say stuff like "Possibility of MITM > NO" and "Central component or other network-wide attack > No - resilient" they kind lose their credibility.

Also, "Other apps have user IDs (...) SimpleX does not, not even random numbers." > there must be an ID at some point. When you invite someone with a QR code or a link that effectively becomes an ID - even if it changes for every invitation. Also servers need to coordinate message delivery, some form of ID is required for that.

The way the messaging queues work and what the servers see is interesting but I'm yet to dig into that.

They do. I absolutely love it

What does their multi-device story look like? Can I use one identity/account on multiple devices, with synced read state etc?

Edit: Looks like it's being worked on. I don't want to use a messenger without this feature anymore, but I'll give SimpleX another look once it's done.

Permanently Deleted

Are chats synced with the mobile and desktop clients?

Simple answer to the question so far as I can see: in order to connect with someone, you have to video conference with them and show them a code. So the anonymity is only as anonymous as the video conference you use to do that. All of the benefits it claims are merely an illusion.

Session messenger allows you to chat without linking a phone number to your account. It’s what drug dealers use lol.

I would use it, if there were unified push support.

Top-Tec! decentralized and doesn’t depend on any unique identifiers

Here is my take as someone who absolutely loves the work simplex did on the SMP protocol, but still does not use SimpleX Chat.

First the trivial stuff:

1. no one else seems to use it
2. UX is not great because of initial exchange

These two are not that unexpected. Any other chat app with E2E security has tricky UX, and SimpleX takes the hard road by not trading off security/privacy for UX. I think this is a plus, but yes it annoys people.

Now for the reasons that really keep me away:

1. the desktop app is way behind the mobile app - and I would really prefer to use a desktop CLI app
2. haskell puts me off a bit - the language is fine I just don't know how to read it - for more practical issues it did not support older (arm6/7) devices which kept lots of people in older devices away
3. AFAIK no alternative implementations of either the client or the SMP server exist - which is a petty I think the protocol would shine in other contexts (like push notifications)
4. I was going to say that there are not many 3rd party user groups - but I just found out about the directory service (shame on me, maybe? can't seem to find groups though)
5. protocol features/stabilization is a moving target and most of the fancy new features don't really interest me (i don't care much about audio/video)
6. stabilization of code/dependencies would help package the server/client in more linux distros, which I think would help adoption among the tech folk

Finally a couple of points on some of the other comments:

• multi device support - no protocol out there can do multi device properly (not signal, none really) so i'm ok with biting the bullet on this
• VC funding is a drag - but I am still thankful that they clearly specified the chat protocol separate from the message relay, which means that even if the chat app dies, SMP could still be used for other stuff.

because of herpes simplex

Because Signal is great.

Running out of names for apps? I'll just borrow from Herpes Simplex.... seems catchy.