Hi all! I’d like to request suggestions for a secure messaging app, ideally that doesn’t require mobile phone for registration, to stay connected to my family In Russia.

The country wages war on the Internet, messengers and VPNs. Options are blocked one by one, and one can’t register in Signal because numbers that send registration confirmation from Signal are blocked…

I’d need an app that allows group chats, calls, media attachments and audio messages, easy enough for older people would be able to install. Ideally, something niche enough it won’t be blocked right away…

It’s a lot of requirements, but I hope something like this exists and would be very grateful for any recommendations.

Android / iPhone / desktop.

  • solrize@lemmy.ml
    2·
    14 hours ago

    I think it’s hard, and even if there is something that works, its use can probably be detected somehow, and that could get your family in trouble.

    Tbh I’d probably use snail mail letters for anything private on the theory that the RU govt doesn’t have the resources to open all the envelopes, and you can use special phrases for particularly private meanings. All that stuff like media attachments is asking for trouble. You could also send microSD cards by snail mail though that might attract attention.

    Remember that Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan had no internet connectivity at all. If he wanted to send an email, he’d write it to a USB drive and have a guy on a motorcycle take it to a café 70 km away or something like that. Replies would be brought to him the same way. They still managed to find him and kill him in his bedroom.

    Today with AI analysis of massive amounts of traffic logs, I’m sure signal ID is far easier than it was in 2011.

    • leriotdelac@lemmy.zipOP
      4·
      13 hours ago

      I’m looking for something to have a family chat with, not to run a terrorist organization:) It’s quite risky via official Russian apps that are look-through, but as long as the content of messages and calls is secured, it should be fine even if the channel itself can be identified. As of now, the usage of messaging apps per se is not prosecuted.

    • petrescatraian@libranet.de
      3·
      13 hours ago

      Tbh I’d probably use snail mail letters for anything private on the theory that the RU govt doesn’t have the resources to open all the envelopes

      Hahahaha!

      I’m not a Russian, rather Romanian. But I heard stories how all the mail coming from the outside was checked and “vetted for anything suspicious” at the border during communism. Since we and USSR were on the same team I suppose they did the same. And how the way the public institutions work barely changed, nowadays, given the current situation, I expect them to return to that practice.

      So yeah, I wouldn’t trust snail mail with anything sensitive.

      • leriotdelac@lemmy.zipOP
        3·
        8 hours ago

        Spot on haha. I doubt they have time to read every single snail mail, but I won’t ever write anything important in a snail mail sent to Russia.

      • solrize@lemmy.ml
        2·
        13 hours ago

        Well start with a few not-that-private letters to check for evidence of their being opened. What happens with ordinary email by the way?

        • petrescatraian@libranet.de
          1·
          13 hours ago

          Hmmm, that’s true. Probably OP checked this, but now that you mentioned it, I would do the same 😁

          What happens with ordinary email by the way?

          I expect it was previously appealing based on the fact that only the vendor had access (of course, now it no longer applies).

          Maybe another option is to use one of the private providers that do not track you and are less mainstream than Proton. Let’s say Tuta or Mailbox.org (if they are not blocked already too). Probably encrypt the emails with PGP too for more security.