The developer behind Pixelfed, Loops, and Sup, open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, respectively, is now raising funds on Kickstarter to fuel the apps’ further development.
The trio is part of the growing open social web, also known as the fediverse, powered by the same ActivityPub protocol used by X alternative Mastodon. The latter saw increased signups and use after the company formerly known as Twitter sold to Elon Musk in October 2022 and during the X exodus that followed the U.S. presidential election.
In the months and years following that sale, open source and decentralized apps like Mastodon and Bluesky (which uses the newer AT Protocol), have continued to grow their user bases, as people sought alternatives to centralized social media apps controlled by billionaires like Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.
Edit: Link to the kickstarter
If all my friends, family, and coworkers could get off WhatsApp, I would be so happy.
I’m trying to convince mine to get on Signal
I just did convince my family and all close friends to move to signal.
RCS could be also an option. Now mostly backed by google but it can be unplugged whenever we want
I’m not going to use a proprietary protocol to chat through Google’s (Jibe) servers running proprietary software. Even if the messages are e2ee, Google can still collect metadata. Google never provides anything for free and collection of data is kinda their thing.
Also, Google will kill RCS sooner or later.
yeahhh nah
afaik not really, only cell phone companies can apply to join the rcs federation and all of them just outsourced it to google and apple so it under control of just 2 companies.
so no, rcs is not an open standard.
The number of cell phone companies is so high nowadays that it could be compared to the number of fediverse instances. They would just need a prepackaged docker to set it all up and they would just do it. No need for eternal history of messages and media, they could manage it a la WhatsApp.
I worked for years in one of the biggest in telecom companies in Europe. They supported RCS for about 2 years, before they stopped. I tried to restart the project, but there was no interest. It is viewed as a waste of money since customers already use Google Messages, iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp.
So Snapchat is lossinh money with its service? I don’t think so
I think you may have misunderstood what I wrote.
Snapchat makes money through showing you ads. RCS is something very different. It is not social media. RCS has no ads in the same way that SMS has no ads.
Telecom providers have to spend money to support RCS. Telecom providers don’t want to spend money on RCS if it’s not going to earn them money. They believe RCS is not going to earn them money because the customers aren’t interested. The customers aren’t interested because they can already chat with each other through social media and chat apps.
still more work then just letting google handle it for them, so wont happen
WhatsApp? Just use signal already!
Centralized. Not good. Conversations is on fdroid and is decentralized, federated, open source and uses a mature and battle tested protocol (XMPP). If I wanted something new, I would prefer Matrix over Signal.
People act like we need an alternative to Whatsapp but XMPP/Jabber exists and is much older.
what happened to pidgin
Pidgin is a client, not a specific protocol.
I know, I just remember I used to use it with jabber xmpp but I think after everyone got gtalk and then everyone got cellphones everyone moved away from those types of clients
Fun fact, Google Talk and Facebook used to be compatible with XMPP.
Nobody but a handful of nerds uses it though. You won’t get your grandparents and less tech literate friends to leave whatsapp in droves, simple as that.
And they’re not going to leave WhatsApp for Sup? either. All I’m saying is we’ve had an alternative for decades, even before WA was created, we don’t need another one, we need the one we already have to have more success.
Why are there so many downvotes? Dude said the truth. Signal, like whatsapp, is a single point of failure. It can be enshittified just like whatsapp.
We are on Lemmy and some are against everything who is centralized.
With so many examples like twitter, reddit, Factbook, whatsapp, instagram etc. can you really blame us for not liking centralized services? Also, I don’t hate all centralized services. I love Wikipedia, Openstreetmap.org etc. Also, the outage of OSM earlier proves that single point of failure is a reason for concern.
I don’t like centralized services. I also never pretended the opposite.
This is for me and my usage. The caveat is that not everyone is in the tech. We can look at the disastrous communication of Mastodon. They focussed and lots of people promoting it focussed too on the “decentralized argument”. This backfired. It was not clear for the public. A good strategy would have been to market Mastodon as an alternative with an easy process to create an account on the general website. Tech people would have chosen another server and do their stuffs. People would learn progressively the decentralization part and move from server to server. This takes time. We have to put great strategies in places and be patient to bring the public to the fedi.
I don’t know if you know about it, but there’s this new community [email protected] They got some nice discussion about how to on-board more people on here.
What about Simplex over Matrix?
Sure, it looks great. But it doesn’t have the popularity of Matrix, which is already less popular than XMPP which has enjoyed decent adoption since it’s inception.
What are some good examples of apks to use in regards to this use-case?
Simplex is more like Briar or Cwtch
It’s not really a whatsapp alternative. More like a facebook messenger alternative. It replaces and encrypts dms from mastodon, pixelfed, lemmy, etc
incorrect
Care to elaborate? Genuinely i interested as to why that is
Signal is just like WhatsApp. Same features. So yeah, that’s incorrect.
no
ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Allllrighty then
Signal? Just use matrix already!
Unable to decrypt message
They said matrix, not element.
This happend to me on other clients too
deleted by creator
Matrix? Just use telepathy already! /s
I prefer Matrix over Signal because it required personal numbers.
Simplex is a much closer alternative
I tried using it with a friend, and it completely nuked my phone’s battery, while my friend’s phone silently killed it (likely for using too much battery). I understand that truly privacy-respecting messengers will always use slightly more power than apps that use the google notification thing, but simplex is just a complete power hog beyond any reasonable limit. Hopefully they fix it at some point, it seems like a pretty solid messenger otherwise, and their approach to privacy and anonymity is unparalleled, at least in theory.
you go on matrix and some of the communities are like no matrex bad goto simplex we’re there now
Or XMPP for those who doesn’t like matrix
Not on FDroid. Not open source
But it is open source. And there’s a fork of Signal available on F-Droid called Molly.
It is not open source. That’s why its not allowed on fdroid. It has parts that are open source, like most apps. But the app itself is closed source and a risk
The only part that isn’t open source is their spam filter.
Nope. Google deps
Can you explain a little more what you mean?
The app requires code from Google that is not open source and has a history of being malware that invades your privacy and steals your data.
Not open source
There are lots of good reasons to be upset with how Signal produces builds. And maybe Signal has no good reason why they keep opaque dependencies. But by every common definition of the term, Signal is open source. Being on FDroid is not the definition of open source.
Please don’t gatekeep. There are better ways to criticize Signal. This is not one of them.
If your releases include closed source blobs, then your software is closed source.
Following that logic:
Many popular Linux distros contain closed source blobs. Ergo Linux is closed source.
Then that particular build of the distro is closed source. The linux kernel is still open source.
Okay, so the Apache license is a “closed source” license?
Yes
Linux is an open source kernel. Many operating systems that use linux ars closed source, yes. This is the position of the FSF.
And its why most Linux distros have an option to include closed source or not.
Signal, however, has no option. Its just closed source software.
@ExFed @jagged_circle you mean drivers for external devices ?
Sure. That’s one possible vector. Is it “Open Source” software? Yes, they accept contributions for the community. It’s is “Libre” software? No, they depend on closed source software.
I’m trying to illustrate that the definition of “open source” can be weaponized for no good reason. Dismissing Signal because it doesn’t fit a narrow definition of “open source” makes everybody less secure. I have a hard enough time convincing my non-tech-savvy friends to switch to Signal. There’s a snowball’s chance in Hell I’ll convince them to use something even more obscure.
@ExFed Lol, I messaged 20+ connections to step over…nobody. We have a saying “what the farmer doesn’t know, the farmer doesn’t like” I fear signal has to be mentioned a thousand times from all directions before they “trust” it. The publics trust is based on repetition and the concept that a big firm has more to lose than an non profit.
You’re wasting your time. Have the move to a platform that is open source.
Stuff like this is a major, major component of dealing with nazis.
And even after they’re dealt with, it’s a better way of doing things, anyway. If it’s a company, you’re not on their social media platform, as much as you can possibly manage.
Which is a lot.
I’m all for fediverse.
It would help with a lot, yah
which uses the newer AT Protocol
This “newer” seems to be doing a lot of work.
Btw, you can also donate on Patreon, OpenCollective, and Liberapay.
I’m guessing using Kickstarter has the benefit of adding hype as a new thing. I’ve always been curious about Open Collective and Liberapay. Have you tried it? Was it a smooth process?
I donated with open collective before and it was a pretty smooth experience
I went with Patreon. The CEO seems like a cool guy that just wants to support other creatives. Hope he’s actually as cool as he comes across.
