Introduce yourself or just say hi

I’m Hartmut from Ostfriesland, living in Oldenburg.
I searched for a messenger-app and read the descriptions from all I could fiind. I’m a real follower of “Open Source” (because I work with Linux at home since 1999), so it was Kontalk.
I use Kontalk with very few people (wife, friends, children).
The others have Whatsapp (I not!) too and enjoy the additional Kontalk, because they know: if Kontalk rings, it’s important and mostly family.

Spielmops

PS: If anyone wants to know, how to change Android to non-spyware, ask me (the Fairphoners know already)

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Psst! @stanzi @Spielmops We Fairphoners should prepare for the takeover of the Kontalk forum! :smiling_imp:

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… and we make Kontalk a system-app on the FP2 next to Fdroid…

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Hi, I’m Dima, I was born in Belarus and now living in Berlin so I speak Russian, Belorussian, English, German and started to learn French some months ago.

I’m maybe the technical less skilled and the youngest one (not even 18) who got here on my own.

I’ve came in contact with Open Source :heart_eyes: when I was 10 years old and got my first laptop where my father, mainly system administrator, installed Ubuntu, which I don’t like that much anymore. In that time I’ve really enjoyed the multiple desktops and especially COMPIZ.

Now I’m still using only FOSS (besides of Google Docs but it will be replaced with Nextcloud soon), Debian on my PC, Blender, OpenShot and Gimp for my “artwork”:clapper::art:, LMMS :musical_note::notes: for music and so on.

When I bought my first smartphone half a year ago I’ve tried to do it right from the beginning and the first thing I’ve done was disabling any preinstalled app which I was allowed to and then downloading F-Droid and Orbot :closed_lock_with_key:.

It took a while until I’ve found Kontalk because I’ve searched an alternative for WhatsApp but there’s no string like “whatsapp” in the description and if you type “chat” you get 35 different apps :frowning:.

After a month later I’ve learned what XMPP is, it got a little easier because there are only 8 (different+free) apps, where “XMPP encryption” has only ChatSecure, Conversations and Kontalk :slight_smile:.

I’ve dropped the 2 first very quickly after I’ve seen that ChatSecure is way to complicated to use it with “normal” people and you have to pay for Conversations.

Thats where Kontalk was just pefect! Simple interface, easy (to use) encryption and entirely open!:+1:

Even those who don’t know how to use the most simple functions in a web-browser are able to use it.

I really like Kontalk even tough the design isn’t as cool as in WhatsApp or Signal but that’s OK because it isn’t the point.

The main feature I enjoy is of course the group chat in the beta. :smile:

The main feature I miss is sending of other file types, especially videos. Maybe you should be able to set up a server of one’s own for this.

:+1:Keep going on!:+1:

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I was looking for in Syria Hussein from Google about apps development and emerged kontalk Lee jabers Protocol
It’s very pretty but if chat room system works better than the Group
And free registration number or e-mail b characters and add friends by email
I can provide you filters spam llromat and alflod if you want to add a feature chat rooms

Hey,

I’m Paul. Like @Stanzi, @Stefan and Spielmops (I’m only allowed to mention 2 users yet) I am a Fairphoner and member of the Fairphone Forum and like @Stanzi and @Stefan I’m from Austria and part of the Austrian Fairphoners. Oh and like @Stefan I’m also a Moderator in the Fairphone Forum and Fan of Discourse.

I have decided a long time ago that Kontalk is the best option for a chat client as it is the only one that’s recommended by Prismbreak and is available from F-Droid without antifeatures.

I was the one who told @Stefan and @Stanzi about Kontalk

Unfortunately I haven’t used Kontalk much yet as most of my friends and Family don’t want to leave their walled gardens and @Stefan and @Stanzi only want to do Group chats which I hate in principle.

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Welcome in the Kontalk community.
Great to see a new member :slight_smile:

They have not to leave there walled gardens. They only have to open the gardendoor by installing Kontalk as a additionally messenger. That’s what I did with my friends.
I only use Kontalk. My friends uses WhatsApp AND Kontalk to communicate also to me :slight_smile:

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Same for me! :wink:

@paulkreuzer we don’t have to do group chats, I just wanted to get you into the beta tester boat for the group chat feature (we are only talking non-important stuff anyway for testing purposes). Would be great to have a one-on-one chat, too! :slight_smile:

PS: Welcome to our little Fairphoners colony! :wink:

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Hello, I’m Jay and I’m from Canada. I found out about Kontalk through https://www.privacytools.io/ and privacy means a great deal to me so that is why I am so interested in the project. It’s a far better alternative to Signal.

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Hi Jay,
thank you for the pointer to https://www.privacytools.io/
On there german page I could not find Kontalk.

But I just offered a Pullrequest :wink:

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Oh really, no problem. I’m glad I could help then. :slight_smile:

From Tilburg, (The Netherlands) I am Lidwien. My mobile is a Fairphone 2 on Fairphone Open 17.06.4
I try to stay away from G—e and use F-Droid and of course Kontalk.

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Welcome @Lidwien. I hope you have a great time in our forum and all the support you need.

Hi everybody, I am Gabriele from Italy.
I heard about Kontalk time ago and I got in touch with @daniele_athome.

I am an IT professional and what catched my attention is the fact that at the core of Kontalk there is Tigase.

Kudos to the team for the brilliant work with Kontalk, so far!

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Hello. I’m from Romania. I’am not a programmer.

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I’m Ron, the 2nd Canadian to post to this thread.

I have a passion for computer and online privacy and security that predates the public internet. I have never convinced anyone other than my son to use secure communications, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.

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Always a pleasure to learn more about newcomers. :slight_smile: Welcome aboard everyone, looking forward to catching you around our forum.

You might be interested in giving your opinion in this poll:

I’m Jose from Spain and happy to be part of this community. Great work with this app, congrats to all the team. Loving GNU/Linux, free software and security/privacy matters. Cheers!.

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Hi. I’m Luis, a lawyer from Brazil, and I have been searching for a good replacement for wh*pp that would be easy to use and had zero learning curve as prerequisite. I’ve tried several different communicators and finally found kontalk which, in addition, is xmpp compatible - as I’ll be using librem5 in the following months it’s a key feature. As well as neofacsism grows (due to cambridge analytica, fb and wh**app) we have to get closer where ethics is present and I feel ethics here, because it’s FOSS. Free software has ethics in its DNA. My missing feature is encryption with non kontalk users (xmpp users).

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Hi @luisfsr
OMEMO is on the roadmap an will (hopfully) coming up very soon.

So this will fix the missing encryption to non Kontalk clients.

1 Like