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.

  • 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.