3 mo. ago • 92%

Opinions on Session?

It seems really cool but I'm a bit wary of it due to the crypto stuff.

34 comments

Simplex is the better choice imo.

28
- From two days ago:
  
  https://lemmy.ml/comment/13108576
  
  A few SimpleX shortcomings beyond what you noted, in no particular order:
  
  No multi-device support.
  
  Adding contacts requires sharing somewhat large links (as either text or QR code) which can be inconvenient.
  
  Messages are lost if not retrieved soon after they’re sent. (I think it’s 21 days by default. I’ve had vacations longer than that.)
  
  No group calls.
  
  Group messaging is full-mesh, meaning that as a group grows, the network traffic will balloon faster than it would with any other topology. This is generally bad for high-traffic groups, but it might be okay if they stay small or everyone always has great unmetered connectivity.
  
  The claim to not have user IDs is misleading at best, and outright false in group chats.
  
  The desktop app uses Java, which will be unappealing to more than a few people. (To be fair, several other messengers use Electron, which is also unappealing to more than a few.)
  
  It does have some neat design ideas. I don’t consider it ready for general use, but I look forward to seeing how it develops.
  
  23
  
  The claim to not have user IDs is misleading at best, and outright false in group chats.
  
  I'm in a group chat but I'm unable to send a direct message to a group member, that's annoying, but would substantiate the claim that they don't have general user IDs.
  
  6
  
  We made a diff acc for each device and then added them all to groups
  
  Works for us ymmv
  
  3
  
  There is multi device support.
  
  3
  
  What would you consider ready for general use? I feel like this is being unnecessarily harsh to the majority of potential users.
  
  2
- From what I can gather, they don't intend on adding multi device capabilities for technical reasons. A big requirement for me is to be able to use both mobile and desktop without losing the history.
  
  5
- VC funded, not exactly a community project, I'm skeptical, and worried about it's future
  
  4
  
  The saving grace is it is licensed under AGPLv3 so community can take over if something happen.
  
  5
  
  Wait until you see where Signal's funding comes from. And for that matter, Tor, the Internet, and computers.
  
  3
- Yea seems better, I installed it. Is there a way to allow certain SimpleX contacts to bypass DND? I was able to do it with Signal but it seems not possible with SimpleX
  
  2
  
  Not that I'm aware of, no. But I don't have much reason to use that, so I haven't really looked for something like that either.
  
  3
Things I didn't like about Session when I looked at it:

Small group size limit

Forward secrecy has been removed

Isolated, app-specific onion network seems destined to forever be inferior to something like Tor, at least where privacy is concerned

Immature codebase (time and dedication could solve this, of course)
13
- Yeah I agree with these
  
  Unclear that their profit model will work out for them
  
  1
My experience is that I tried to use it years ago and it didn't work, so I continued using Signal. Straight up could not receive messages. That's probably fixed now but if I wanted to move away, I'd try SimpleX instead.

6
- Yeah it work now lol
  
  1
My issue is effective impossibility to selfhost. XMPP, Simplex, even Matrix are very possible to run on your own, while a Session node would be insanely, arbitrarily expensive (requires around $1000 now, IIRC used to be more). A hobbyist like me and you would not want to pour this much into something they provide out of the goodness of their heart.

Seriously, if you have this much disposable money, you'd be better off running a few Tor nodes in various places).

4
It's my go to messenger, idc about the crypto stuff, it's just a way to reward volunteers who use their servers for all the mathematical conversions, and I have been thinking of running a node myself, to make the network more decentralized

It has some downsides though, you can't send larger files than 8mb, and if you lose your recovery phrase, you're compromised, and you can't edit messages

I used to tell people to use Signal or Element, but I noticed many can't even sign up, Session just generates a random ID for you, and voila..

3
- I think the biggest issue for most privacy/security people is the removal of PFS.
  
  3
- it's just a way to reward volunteers
  
  Yea, but creating a node requires a BIG initial stake. So wonder how likely it is that you'd at least break even with this.
  
  1
I still don't get their "privacy coin" based network. I think their luck would look a lot better if they use the existing tor network instead of lokinet.

2
It's nice, reliable and super quick to on board people since no sign up required. Technology seems interesting and novel, and it's also transparent since it even shows the node path (in addition to being FOSS)

Do I trust it? No, but I don't trust technology in general

2
Development is so slow it's genuinely hard to believe.
Usability is rather lacking.
I'd say avoid it for the time being and I say that as former long time user.

1
It's a scam and dying.

0
- Never was a scam. What are you on about?
  
  2
  
  Cope. It's based on a shitcoin and now they're rug pulling their node operators and forcing an even less privacy-oriented premined ethereum-based shitcoin that'll further enrich only the devs.
  
  -4

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