A community for GrapheneOS related questions and discussion.
I've always known that SMS are not encrypted and that they are not the safest way of communication. I tried using signal with others all on graphene os, but all phones seem to have their battery drained heavily due to graphene having to run signal in the background for instant notifications.
What do you all use as a safer daily alternative to SMS for mild sensitive info that doesn't drain the battery?
Preferably: trusted, privacy respecting, free, bonus if FOSS
Anecdotally, I have found Conversations (XMPP federated chat) is better for battery life on GrapheneOS than Signal.
The onramp is more complicated. I learned the hard way that uptime history is the only aspect I really care about when choosing a server.
All XMPP accounts on all XMPP servers can talk to each-other, as long as both user's home servers are up and running.
Oh, and you need to turn on encryption - it is optional. OMEMO encryption is widely supported and good enough for casual chat security.
Interesting find, does it always run in the background like signal does to handle notifs?
does it always run in the background like signal does to handle notifs?
Yes.
I don't think there is any alternative that supports instant notifications without running a service or using the Google push notifications service. The best bet would be to not use the service and poll for messages every few minutes, if Signal supports that.
Signal is okay battery wise. Molly lets you receive notifications via a websocket. XMPP might be a bit better but still uses the same websocket tech.
I haven't had battery issues on graphene with signal personally. That being said, I've also had no issues with matrix based messaging either. However, matrix does have issues with notification delays that signal doesn't (again, for me).
If you want to patch the problem instead of fully solving it, you can use the Silence app from F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/org.smssecure.smssecure
It encrypts your SMS'es, so there's literally no battery drain to keep "connected".
Note: you'll need to open F-Droid repo's setting and click "archive".
Thanks for the recommendation. I wonder why no one is trying to make an updated version of this app, something similar to it. Seem very neat. I wonder if it is still secure because it is 6 years not updated...
For the security aspect, I've skimmed through the code, it seems the "building blocks" that they are using (security primitives) are still relevant as of today. Namely I've found AES, ed25519, Hmac. The code itself is mostly taken from Text Secure (now Signal) at a point when they've decided to drop SMS support in order to focus on their own network (bypassing SMS).
Personally I'd trust it more than raw SMS at least. I think I'd mostly trust it.
I use Element/XMPP/Signal mostly though. In fact I've stopped using Silence few years ago.. Somehow thinking outside of the SMS box now.
Guess I'm staying with battery hungry signal...
Graphene won't let me give it access to sms
I will try simplex, and see if it drains battery less. As of bow they seem to be tied for battery drain.
I've tried it out of curiosity, it works for me. I had a link where they recommended clicking though, to fix it and to make it work. I don't see it on your screenshot. I think I got a (slightly different) warning with a link when I tried to open Silence as an app.
Regardless, it was essentially to open Settings > Apps > All Apps > find Silence > click somewhere (I forgot where exactly) to enable the potentially very unsafe thing of full SMS access. I think it was on the top right where I needed to click in the last step. Afterwards, Silence can be selected as the default SMS handler.
That being said, I personally mostly use Signal and Matrix nowadays. The phone lasts for.. 2 days probably? IDK. I'm not really happy with either messenger BTW, but it's the best shot for now, for me