I’ve have used Signal to handle SMS ever since I started using Signal. With the upcoming SMS drop coming ever closer I was wondering what everyone else is thinking of using instead of Signal?
I currently run GrapheneOS and love it! However the default SMS app is pretty bland and featureless.
Tried QKSMS, and looked at a few others, and really just prefer Signals look/feel and features.
As far as threat model:
I do not have a google account or facebook or other social media outside of this and a few forums. I also do not use reward cards of any kind, or use my phone number. However I am almost required to use SMS in my current job. (Doesn’t feel right to ask coworkers to go Signal, but that would be awesome)
If you use Sandboxed Play Services, I would recommend Google Messages, because you have E2EE Support with RCS, if your coworkers also use Google Messages.
It is even possible to use Google Messages without a Google account.
If you don’t use Sandboxed Play Services, I would recommend to use a SMS client with a pretty UI (and preferably being open source), because security doesn’t matter that much on SMS clients because SMS is very unsecure, so I would recommend to ask your coworkers to switch to a E2EE messenger like Signal.
If you want to stick to open source your main options are the stock messaging app, QKSMS and Simple SMS Messenger. That is if you use a SIM card with a phone number.
I use a VoIP number with my device and I can send and receive SMS using Cheogram which is a Jabber client. And in my opinion that is the better option for privacy, as it allows you to decouple your phone number from your SIM card.
I have been testing jmp.chat. @Henry mentioned it on the last episode of Surveillance Report and I decided to give it a try. They only provide numbers in the USA and Canada, but it works in pretty much any country. And you can pay with Monero.
I’m using it together with Cheogram and here is the cool part. Cheogram is able to integrate with the system dialer, so you can make calls without even opening the Cheogram app.
That is rather strange. If you look at the F-Droid releases you can clearly see the last update was about a month ago. I wonder how that is possible when the last commit was on 2021.
This https://cheogram.com is getting interesting to me. What Signal Desktop never did was handle SMS. If i can SMS my mom from multiple devices with out her knowing or doing anything that would be great.
Yes, you definitely can. You can also use your phone number from your computer. All you need is an internet connection. VoIP numbers can give you a lot of flexibility.
I’m wondering if there would be a benefit to using MySudo with Cheogram.
I use a Googled Phone to manage several google accounts including one just for MySudo numbers. This cost me $1 a month, paid with GooglePay via a prepaid Visa card, purchased with cash.
The $3 JMP VoIP is not out of budget, just trying to gain another use of MySudo.
I think google messages would be the only next best option in terms of UI to signal if you are able to use it with sandboxed playservices.
If you want to go the voip route then sure you can with the available clients.
Qksms+ also did a decent job ,but you can also try Right messages by Goodwy which i currently use. Goodwy is attempting to make some good looking apps like dialer ,sms contacts and even gallery. The theme of his apps are ios based.
here is its source , Goodwy · GitHub but the builds are only available through playstore.
One cool feature of simple mobile tools is that the sms messenger integrates with the Simple Contacts app, which stores your contacts in phone storage so that other apps cant pull from your contacts.
The caveat to this is that you need to use all three apps (sms, contacts and dialer) from Simple Mobile to be able to see names with the numbers.
I think you can use them independently look how your saving your contacts. I remember something about Simple will save to just simple or share with other apps.
You can try using ‘connect You’ app , which allows you to have 2 seperate storage for your contacts , one is internal and hidden from other apps and other which can be seen by any other app. It also lets you move contacts between the storage very easily.
