Looking for a messenger which synchronizes with multiple clients

Hi everybody! Because i regularly use 2 phones and 2 laptops i’m looking for a messenger that synchronizes well with multiple clients. Probably something without e2e would be best. Does anybody have a suggestion? many thanks :slight_smile:

I have had very good experience with Matrix/Element syncing a Phone and a Laptop. It handles e2ee very comfortably without issues so far.

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XMPP clients work fine, Conversations on Android and Dino on Linux. e2ee or not, as you wish.

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Or Psi+ ( https://psi-plus.com/ ) on windows, though it can be tricky to get your firewall settings adjusted for video calls (text chat seems to “just work” easily enough though). Encryption is an option, there are plugins (included but you will need to mark a checkbox to enable them) for PGP, OTR and OMEMO (the preferred way if you use multiple clients).

Since you make no restrictions about the messenger itself: the “regular” messengers Telegram and Signal do sync well between desktops and phone.
They are however bound to a telefone number. So I am not sure how well they work with multiple phones.

DeltaChat is also a nice alternative.
It uses emails as its “transport medium” (you could call it an email client that disguises as messenger but IMHO that doesn’t do it full justice).
Interesting idea with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
New devices need to be initialized with the backup from another device (or you will not see old messages. Not 100% sure why) but from there on received messages, sent messages and read status sync nicely.

They have other known issues unfortunately :frowning:

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With XMPP i’ve noticed that if new devices join a chat old encrypted messages are not available to them.

Probably the best way around this is just to turn off encryption.

Or maybe i’m looking in the wrong place and could instead try out matrix.

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You have to make sure that your server has implemented XEP-0280 (XEP-0280: Message Carbons) and optimally also XEP-0198 (XEP-0198: Stream Management). It is not enough if your client can handle carbons, the server must also support it.

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Yes, same for Signal or Telegram Secret Chats, right? As expected…

@ecxod they said “new devices”

It uses some keys to bring back old messages… so no forward secrecy, eg you can use PGP for XMPP for the same effect. Different threat models :slight_smile:

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