2y ago

The state of open source SMS messagers

With simple messager selling out & qksms no longer being actively worked on. What's our options for open source sms messagers?

Should I dedicate time to learning flutter and building my own or does anyone know any cool foss projects working on this issue?

60 comments

You definitely shouldn't invest time in SMS. Without RCS (or some custom messaging protocol support), "texting apps" are pretty much a dead market.
RCS is ~~both more secure and~~ more user friendly than SMS can be by design. Once the iPhone gets RCS support in the coming months/years, this will be especially true.
- If you message cross-platform from Android to iOS, and you can't get everyone to agree upon a 3rd party app, then you're kind of stuck with sms. This isn't a problem that is going away in the near future. Apple relies on their locked messaging platform to influence their users into thinking iOS is the best. The users then pressure all of their friends to get iPhones too. It's an effective strategy for them. Very few iPhone users seem to understand the games being played.
  
  https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apple-iphone-getting-rcs-2024-imessage-news/
  Maybe try searching what I said first...?
- There is no open source RCS messaging app afaik
- deleted
  
  Samsung messages has Google's RCS implementation and E2EE, too.
  
  You're right, I've updated my reply... Hopefully someday that will be a generic RCS feature not exclusive to Google and/or Apple and Google will work to make the E2EE work between their two systems.
- Plenty of services still unfortunately rely on SMS for 2FA, so we'll still need a client to receive them. Doesn't really need to be able to send them though, I don't think any human has sent an SMS message deliberately for about 12 years!
  
  I don't think any human has sent an SMS message deliberately for about 12 years!
  sweats nervously in American
  
  @smeg Me and my friends use it as a fallback for mildly urgent stuff. If anything is more urgent, then we call each other.
  @DarkArc
  
  SMS is my primary mode of contact with the rest if the world. I use Signal as well, but most people I know only use SMS.
- Quick question, is RCS mostly a protocol used in the US or something? Cos never heard of the term here in Europe. Maybe I just live under a rock tho.
  
  I am on Vodafone and I have it as well. I heard it's only available on the Google Messages app and on Samsung's app.
  
  If you have a Samsung or use the Google SMS messaging app then you can use RCS via their servers, even in Europe
I use QUIK. It's pretty minimalist and quite nice to use.
- QUIK is a fork of QKSMS but updated. Partison SMS is another fork
  
  Where can these be found?
  
  Yeah
There's no privacy in SMS messaging anyway. I use the messages app from AOSP. A little ugly but it works just fine.
Partisan-SMS 100%. P-SMS is a security/privacy focused fork of QKSMS.
- does Partisan-SMS function as a basic sms messager without encryption?
  
  Yes it does, it works with or without encryption
Qksms is dead? That's a bummer I was quite happy with it after signal stopped being a great SMS app for some reason.
The simplemobiletools apps are being forked by one of their bigger co-developers, so I'll just use that as soon as it's available.
Until then, as long as you got the build from F-Droid, there shouldn't be anything to worry about.
- https://github.com/FossifyOrg
  link to the new fork
There's just no point in developing an app for a dead service. Just use the AOSP messaging app when you need.
I'm happy with my version of simple messenger, I've not updated it for a while... Am I good to keep using that? Can you explain more what you mean by selling out?
- The lead dev sold simplemobiletools to Zippo Apps (or whatever they're called), a company known for buying apps and stuffing them full of ads, trackers and bullying people into buying subscriptions.
  That news came a bit out of the blue, and while I understand why he sold it, the fact that he sold it to such a fuckface company that goes against everything his apps stood for is... yeah
  
  That's very disappointing to hear. I've upgraded to the latest Fdroid version, and I guess that is where the updates will end!
I'm using this ohne after Signal dropped SMS support
- That is the one selling out. All "simple" tools where sold to an ad firm, the f-droid version is probably fine for now but if you got it from Google play : run.
  https://www.androidauthority.com/simple-mobile-tools-acquisition-3391041/
  
  Didn't notice, thx.
- That's simple mobile tools, which op was referring to as the sellouts.
- That's the app OP is talking about 'selling out' to advertisers.
I have switched my comunications to anything else. XMPP, Matrix, Session, Jami, etc. I text as little as I can. No matter the app the messages still go to my carrier.

60 comments