Riot app and matrix standard for instant messaging, voice & video calling:
Free Software, standards based and decentralized replacement for services like WhatsApp, Telegram and Skype.
It has one to one or group messaging with end to end encryption for better privacy. Even though WhatsApp claims they do the same, their app being proprietary, we cannot verify their claim. Riot app is Free Software and its source code is available for anyone to verify the claim. Its audited by NCC Group, a professional security research company. With end to end encryption, only the people you share can see your information, the service provider will only see encrypted data, which they can't decrypt without encryption keys. Its like you press the button and lock a car's door, anyone can lock the door, but once locked only the person with the key can open it. Brute forcing would require huge computing power making it practically not possible.
We are forced to use WhatsApp even if we don't like it because our friends are on WhatsApp and we are locked to it. With matrix free standard, we can use any app, service or even run our own server. People who try to bridge it to other services or use Free Software clients gets banned by WhatsApp.
Imagine this situation, if BSNL were the only mobile service provider and Jio customers could not talk to BSNL customers, would Jio be this popular? Would BSNL and other providers be forced to match Jio offers?
We as customers benefited because GSM is a Free Standard and anyone can compete with better services. We can switch providers without losing our contacts. In case of WhatsApp, even if you like Telegram, and use it, you cannot talk to WhatsApp users using Telegram. So it appears who have a choice of apps, in practice that choice is meaningless.
Matrix is like GSM standard. You can get a matrix account from any service provider like diasp.in, disroot.org or matrix.org like you can buy your sim card from any provider like BSNL, Airtel, Idea etc
You can choose any app, your sim is not locked to a phone model. The most feature rich app is riot, which you can install from riot.im for android, iOS and ant desktop (GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac). There are command line apps like Weechat (with plugin). Pidgin also has some basic support for matrix. Anyone can create a app for matrix standard with better features. Same for the server, anyone can write a server software with better features and performance than the current synapse software. Anyone can take these software and run a matrix server and host it in any country.
We have hosted diasp.in in Noida. There are servers located in countries with better privacy laws like Germany.
Once you create a matrix account and install riot app, you can join #ilug-bom:matrix.org room. https://matrix.to/#/#ilug-bom:matrix.org
Some matrix servers like diasp.in, disroot.org allow registering from their website. Servers like matrix.org and tchncs.de allows registering directly from riot app. You can enter your matrix server in riot app when you login.