free (libre) messengers

- Reading time: 5 minutes -

"I have nothing to hide and no secrets from WhatsApp/Facebook/Google".

That is a fallacy, because:

"It's not about secrets, but about freedom, constitutional
security and self-determined decisions about one's own data."

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Overview

1. Quick Start

2. Reading recommendations

3. News / latest changes

4. Donations

5. Miscellaneous

The Free Messenger Initiative has been nominated for the Bundespreis 2024 (external) of the “German Foundation for Consumer Protection”.

Quick Start

For hurried people who are looking for a free alternative to WhatsApp for Android and immediately want to use a free messenger system without delay:

Target	Technology	Short Info	Installation e. g. from
			(All links refer to EXTERNAL sources!)
Simple chatting with phone number (similar to WhatsApp)	with same-type chat servers	Requires a chat address/user ID (with phone number) on the chat-server “quicksy.im” (chatting with contacts on other servers is possible)	Quicksy (F-Droid, PlayStore)
Simple chattening without phone number	with same-type chat servers	Requires a chat address/user ID (without personal data) on a chat-server (Several clients are available)	Conversations (F-Droid, PlayStore) monocles chat (F-Droid Yaxim (F-Droid, PlayStore - without E2EE)
broadest reachability	all e-mail servers	chatting based on e-mail addresses (yes, it works!) Limitation: without modern messenger features like online status	Delta Chat (F-Droid, PlayStore)
Sensitive special areas	without chat server (direct)	For journalists / activists with high security needs Restriction: Only texts	Briar (F-Droid, PlayStore)

More details about the differences can be found below via the Reading recommendations.
Why the Quick Start item is the way it is? For the “WhatsApp use case”, I consider the international standard XMPP more suitable overall than Matrix, which has the edge as a team messenger.
Cross-reference: System comparison XMPP/Matrix

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Reading Recommendations

The information compiled on these pages is very extensive. For a quick start, there are therefore target group-based reading recommendations. New visitors are also advised to read the “Why” section.

Target Group	Recommended Entry Pages
New to the topic or here by chance?	Basic What are Free Messengers? Why Free Messengers?
For holders of professional secrecy (including teachers).	Info for holders of professional secrecy Education providers Underestimated secret numbers
For private persons (including pupils)	Decision support Usage instructions for standardized chat (XMPP) Monitoring friends using WhatsApp App sources for Android
For companies, organizations, public administration, associations	Administration and authorities and organizations with security tasks Legal certainty Basis for decision Public groups Own chat server
Interested in the topic data protection and privacy?	Why Underestimated secret numbers Privacy and metadata Monitoring friends using WhatsApp Android permissions System comparison
In search of messenger information?	System comparison Messenger systems: Chat standard (XMPP) Matrix E-mail Briar external messenger overviews/comparisons
Active cooperation	Press relations / “Open WhatsApp Text templates Contact

This site lives on engagement and support - Thank you!

News / Latest Changes

Please:

If anyone finds outdated content or broken links, I would be very grateful for a short information.

06.06.2024

Why not:
- New section with Recommendations of the Federal Data Protection Commissioner on WhatsApp
- Information on Ginlo updated and revised
- ICQ end after 27 years: Updated and moved to post mortem
- New section XMPP
- Section on Matrix: -follows-
- Section on SimpleX: -follows-
System comparison / external comparisons:
- Updated and supplemented with an overview ‘privacyspreadsheet’
- New section Performance
Serverless systems: Reticulum added
Chat standard XMPP:
- New section Advantages & Disadvantages
- Information on Conversations revised and restructured
- Security audit for Monal
- Public chat rooms revised
- Usage instructions revised
- Extra supplemented with RSS feeds and Google translation
Updated Matrix and Thoughts about Matrix
Information on SimpleX added
Messenger in the administration supplemented by ByCS
P2P/Serverlos added to content
New category Software-Alternatives
New: English translation of …
- Messenger sources
- XMPP chat standard: Usage instructions
- Public groups
- Gajim
- Chatsecure
- Extra
The Free Messenger Initiative was nominated for the Federal Award 2024 of the ‘German Consumer Protection Foundation’

01.02.2024

System comparison
- Italian translation added
- Section Time history added
- Additional external comparisons (under ‘Other’) added
Why not / “Post Mortem”: New entry Messenger Lite
Serverless systems: New messengers Databag and Quiet added
Chat standard XMPP: Section Server added
New: English translation of …
- Introduction
- Why
- Why not WhatsApp
- Chat standard XMPP: Server and Chat account
- Referals

… as well as many small additions and corrections.

Donations

This site lives on engagement and support - Thank you!

2024: Monthly: 5,- (=60€/year) One-time donations: 10,- / Robert 20,-

Thanks a lot!

The last years:

2023: Monthly: 5,- One-time donations: 500 USD / 20,-
2022: Monthly: 5,- One-time donations: 24,- / 20,- / 20,-
2021: Monthly: 5,- / Für Konterlobbyismus 5,- / Mannott 4,- One-time donations: 20,- / Vogelsang 5,- / 20,-
2020: Monthly: 5,- / Für Konterlobbyismus 5,- One-time donations: 20,- / 20,- / 5,-
2019: Monthly: 5,- One-time donations: Michael D. 20,- / 7,50

Thanks a lot!

This site lives on engagement and support - Thank you!

Miscellaneous

	Freie Messenger supports the open letter (exteral) of „publiccode“ (extern) and is listd as „Nationale NGO“ (non goverment organisation).
	Freie Messenger is a registered participant of Allianz für Cybersicherheit (external) This is an initiative of the German Federal Office for Information Security (external).
	Free Messenger has been nominated for the Bundespreis 2024 (external) of the Deutsche Stiftung Verbraucherschutz (external).