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If you could choose any instant messenger...?

SquirrelSaysNuts

SquirrelSaysNuts

Banned
May 15, 2018
1,898
Denmark
If you could choose any instant messaging technology for your family and friends, and they would magically and instantly follow your recommendation and switch to your choice, which one would you choose?
The only limitations in this scenario would be:
1. That it would have to work on multiple platforms - so no exlusives like imessage or mobile-only like Snapchat
2. That you could log-in from any device and see all of your message history without limitations - unlike for example Signal.
(ed.)
3. Messages should be encrypted in a manner that respects the privacy of the users
4. Avoid the worst offenders of surveillance capitalism (for example Facebook) (how could I forget this one? sorry.)
 
Last edited:
tadaima

tadaima

Member
Oct 30, 2017
2,843
Tokyo, Japan
I would say FB Messenger for its features, but I don't trust FB with my data.

So, LINE.

Edit: though LINE accounts are locked to one mobile device (but multiple tablets/PCs).
 
CrazyAndy

CrazyAndy

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,071
All my friends and family already use only one messenger and that's WhatsApp.
 
Blackpuppy

Blackpuppy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,203
Messenger is great because it works with practically everything. But it's FB.

So I'd go with Whatsapp. But it unfortunately only really works on mobile phones. (And also... Facebook)
 
Budi

Budi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,883
Finland
Steam chat. And actually I've convinced few people who didn't have Steam before to use it to reach me, they haven't bought any games. It's just to chat with me while I'm at home and on PC, or out with my phone. I'd be pissed if I had to have longer conversations on phone at home (calling excluded). Steam has been my primary mean for keeping in touch with friends for some time now, I don't use facebook, twitter, instagram, whatsapp and the sort at all.

I'd also appreciate folks coming back to IRC, it's been lonely in there.
 
Last edited:
Wrestleman

Wrestleman

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,304
Virginia
MSN/Windows Live Messenger. Custom 32x32 emotes, handwriting/drawing, voice calls, etc. It had it all. Used it for like, close to 10 years.
 

Deleted member 41502

User requested account closure
Banned
Mar 28, 2018
1,177
Everyone here uses Line. Its fine, but I have tons of chat rooms open that all look similar, and a bunch of trash companies pinging me in other random ones. I pretty frequently write in the wrong room.
 

Deleted member 35204

User requested account closure
Banned
Dec 3, 2017
2,406
Considering i don't use Facebook services, i like to have as few redundant apps as possible and cannot choose the Apple exclusive iMessage i am going to say Line.
Stickers yo.
 
T002 Tyrant

T002 Tyrant

Member
Nov 8, 2018
8,972
Whatsapp it's fully encrypted unfortunately it's now owned by Facebook. But I'd probably choose that.
 

Deleted member 31873

Banned
Nov 8, 2017
3,532
Facebook Messenger is pretty much identical to WhatsApp except for not being tied to a SIM card, which makes it much more usable on PC's and other devices, so that's the obvious choice.
 
Pankratous

Pankratous

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,257
WhatsApp.

But really, if I could I would bring back the original MSN Messenger, to the status it was before it was replaced by Skype. MSN was and still is the best IM ever made and I don't know why they replaced it with Skype, which is so shit in comparison even now.
 
ZeroX

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
dekdek said:
If you could choose any instant messaging technology for your family and friends, and they would magically and instantly follow your recommendation and switch to your choice, which one would you choose?
The only limitations in this scenario would be:
1. That it would have to work on multiple platforms - so no exlusives like imessage or mobile-only like Snapchat
2. That you could log-in from any device and see all of your message history without limitations - unlike for example Signal.
(ed.)
3. Messages should be encrypted in a manner that respects the privacy of the users
4. Avoid the worst offenders of surveillance capitalism (for example Facebook) (how could I forget this one? sorry.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Does any service actually meet all four criteria
 

Deleted member 17388

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,994
LINE

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johan

johan

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,554
I was big into Adium for a while there when MSN Messenger was still a thing

Now I would probably choose Telegram. Everybody uses Whatsapp here though, which isn't too bad. Just wish the desktop app was better
 
Oleander

Oleander

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,589
I'd use Telegram for everything if everyone used Telegram.

But they don't, so WhatsApp it is.
 
Paertan

Paertan

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,393
Telegram. All my friends use it. My GF and family are sticking to Facebook Messenger though.
 

Deleted member 14663

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
749
FB Messenger and Whatsapp will merge at one point anyway, or at least you will be able to send messages between the platforms.
 
SwampBastard

SwampBastard

The Fallen
Nov 1, 2017
11,038
If it was still around, I would probably vote for Allo. That was a great platform.

Since it's not, I vote Telegram. Got most of my social circle to switch early this year and it's pretty great. Also ticks all the boxes in the OP. Anything owned by Facebook is a non-starter.
 
Gakidou

Gakidou

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,612
pip pip cheerio fish & chips
I have a bit of an issue with the premise of this thread in general (not in a complaint way, its a fine question) because that's not really my ideal way for using instant messenger.
Right now I have one IM that i use almost exclusively for my partner, and a couple other close friends and then I use FB/Whatsapp for friends and family, and Skype for work. That keeps them on different levels of intrusiveness, I would definitely not want to unify them, even if I could manage my availability through mute/block/ignore/afk/multiaccount features thats still gonna be way higher maintenance than what I have going on now.

Also people nostalgic for ICQ, do you not remember how much spam you'd get on there because the usernames were all numbers so people could just cold-call random users??
 
Kyonashi

Kyonashi

Member
Oct 24, 2017
862
UK
Telegram is 100% the best for features, multi-device usage, and encryption. No other messaging app I've used comes close.
 
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