Secure Skype alternatives ?


Kev2442

Kev2442

Still French
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Nov 4, 2014
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646
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42 (Loire) is the answer.
Hey all,
I thought I'd ask you guys. I've been spending the day looking at replacing a couple privacy-invasive tools, and I'm still struggling with messaging software.
As a majority of you (by the looks of it) runs Linux and are receptive to FOSS software, I'm interested in your advice.

I've looked at Tox, Linphone, Jami, Wire and Riot, yet I'm not able to decide from the webpages alone. And while I'd find a guinea pig to try something new, they're not more willing to create a handful of accounts than I am, knowing most will go to waste. So here I am, asking you what you think of these, and if there's anything notable beside them.

My requirements would be :

- Security (encrypted enough to ensure privacy)
- Free to own, free to use
- Multi-user VoIP (at least four people calls)
- Screen sharing (with sound)
- Messages history
- Stable (no need to actively update it, not disappearing anytime soon)
- Windows compatible

Optional features I'd rather have but can do without :

- Multi-platform (x86 Debian/Ubuntu, macOS, iOS, Android, and last but not least Pyra !)
- Configurable audio input/output (ASIO out)
- Remote control (for screen sharing - not crucial)
- Message rectification/suppression
- Unlimited file sharing size
- Dedicated Windows application (rather than Java/UWP/web-based...)
- Avatar, emotes...
- Low-latency (gameplay sharing)
- FOSS (at least open source and/or community driven)
- Hardware video encoding (NVIDIA GPUs)

Even though I'm asking this for me, it would make for a killer app on the Pyra, don't you think ? :)
Feel free to discuss the matter and add your own concerns !
 
Tox would meet some of your criteria; you just have to download it and run it and it'll create an account for you automatically. I don't know how well its video calling meets your criteria though, and I'm not sure how mature it is (I've currently got v0.17 installed which counts as an alpha), so you may need to update it periodically. It should be in the debian repos I'd have thought, so should be pyra ready, but I don't know what state the windows clients are in.

I don't really know whether it supports game sharing, and I don't have an nvidia gpu to test any encoding.
 
What I'm afraid of is the availability of releases for the ARM version of Debian. I did try out Tox a couple years ago, looked fine but IIRC the audio quality was sub-par. Must have evolved since, so I'd already considered it as a first try.
 
My first answer would be Riot. I know it's made with Electron and thus pretty heavy for an instant messenger. But for the moment it is the only fully-featured Matrix client available. And the Matrix protocol is really one to keep in mind for future messaging. Hopefully there will be more (lightweight) clients available in the future, but I've been waiting for a while now too....

Jitsi is also always worth mentioning. The desktop client is made with Java but actually not bad at all. And you can even use their Videobridge (or something similar) that works with WebRTC from browser to browser without any destkop software at all.
 
The Matrix API seems to be built in web technologies, so I expect it'll always need something like electron. That should still fit with the Pyra though, the only trouble I've seen with electron stuff thus far is building Chromium on slightly less common architectures, but the power of the Debian ARM team should be able to squash any build issues like that quite quickly in the main.
 
I've also given Jitsi a few tries. There's an Android client, but alas a bit unstable on my phone.
 
G'day folks, I'm looking into this too. I'm on Ubuntu 18.04. I've only been using Linux for 6 years or so, so forgive me if my query sounds a bit stupid.
I'm wanting to try Jitsi desktop:

https://desktop.jitsi.org/Main/Download.html

It lists an Ubuntu package, but I can't find any mention of Jitsi when doing an Ubuntu package search? If I use the download button on the site I get a .deb file. I see I can install that myself, but it strikes me as odd; If it's supposedly an Ubuntu package, why would it not show up in Ubuntu packages?
 
You do not need to download a Jitsi client on your PC, just use your web browser (you need to find a server instance that suits you first). The installer you found might be the server.
For video conference and screen sharing, BBB (BigBlueButton) works quite well, right from your web browser too. And you need to find a server instance you trust, too.
 
gpsqueeek said:
You do not need to download a Jitsi client on your PC, just use your web browser (you need to find a server instance that suits you first). The installer you found might be the server.
For video conference and screen sharing, BBB (BigBlueButton) works quite well, right from your web browser too. And you need to find a server instance you trust, too.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but the reason I want to use Desktop Jitsi, as opposed to Jitsi Meet, is because it is not a client, and is not hosted on a server, it is a stand alone program. Perfect for my needs. :)
 
Git1 said:
Thanks, but the reason I want to use Desktop Jitsi, as opposed to Jitsi Meet, is because it is not a client, and is not hosted on a server, it is a stand alone program. Perfect for my needs. :)
Click to expand...
I think the standalone app is a client, but maybe it is also the server? How do you connect to eachother?
 
gpsqueeek said:
How do you connect to eachother?
Click to expand...
The other person has to have it installed too. I assume it just uses sockets direct to the each others IPs. I wrote a program once that communicates via a socket to send and receive UDP packets. No external server required. I assume it does the same, only much, much fancier. :)
 
Git1 said:
The other person has to have it installed too. I assume it just uses sockets direct to the each others IPs. I wrote a program once that communicates via a socket to send and receive UDP packets. No external server required. I assume it does the same, only much, much fancier. :)
Click to expand...
Oh if you enter the other's IP address then you probably have a server version, I guess. It would possibly not work if you are behind a NAT though, but thankfully, not all ISPs do that :)
 
Yes, my ISP I'm currently with puts a handful of houses being a NAT, I can probe those but not any further houses. You can connect from that kind of thing to a server which isn't behind a NAT, and the server can talk back to you on the same connection. But you can connect two clients behind a NAT, they won't be able to see each other. So either one person is not NATted, or both are not.
 
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