Seeking advice on good message/video/file transfer software
 

Hi there.

I'm looking to find a suitable Linux software package that allows me to securely communicate with other folk. I was hoping that some of you might have some suggestions. The software should fulfil the following criteria (more or less):

. Provides messaging, file transfer, audio/video calls.

. Secure transmission (as audited by and/or acknowledged by e.g. the EFF), including keys held by the individuals rather than in some central location.

. Native open-source Linux client rather than web app wrapper.

. Available for both Linux and Android.

. Free.

Does anyone have any opinions on which software might best fit these requirements?

If I didn't know you better, I'd be wondering about this post.

WhatsApp with whatsapp web, & end to end encryption.

It's a shame these days that if people merely want to securely communicate, some folk consider that they're not up to any good. ;)

I'm not sure that Whatsapp is open source, nor that they have a native Linux client that isn't a web wrapper, but I'll have a look at it. Many thanks for your suggestion!

I'll just add this to the mix. The comments include an interesting discussion on alternative messaging clients.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comme...inux_has_been/

Having had a look around, Signal (https://signal.org/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Private_Messenger) seems to tick all the right boxes. I'll try it out over the next few days.

Are you serious?

Anyways, this thread and question is a good thread and a good question.. I'm hoping for some quality answers in here. Is there a single program that handles these things and fulfils the criterias of the threadstarter? Ekiga? Emptathy?

This link might be useful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar..._VoIP_software

So, Signal didn't cut the mustard. Neither my phone nor the phone of my friend actually rang when we called each other by Signal. It appears that this is a recognised problem, e.g. https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/7733 and https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/7603.

In addition, the software is organised around your mobile phone, similar to WhatsApp. I would like to be able to do everything through my computer if I wish and not have the devices synchronise. The desktop application also doesn't appear to allow voice calls.

I'll try another one tomorrow.

It's pretty obvious that some of them are up to no good. Being secure isn't good enough for them. I'd do my best for a guy living under Dictatorships, but here and most places it means child porn, drugs, crime, or the like. And they come on wanting free advice.

I'm sure WhatsApp has a web wrapper. But it isn't trivial. I have to scan the little square thing, and I'm locked out ATM because it's not happy. The NSA were bellyaching that there wasn't a backdoor, and I presume in your security drive, you delete cache/cookies/history on exit?