@tetris4 Sorry. I wanted to say “missing features such as voice messages”.
No need to apologize, I was just trying to understand. I guess you are actually referring to voice calls, because Kontalk can send voice messages just fine. 
How do you send voice messages?? 
Just open a chat.
Beside the input field is a microphon icon. Just press and hold it to record a voice message.
This message will sendet immediately after you have finished.
Or use the paperclip on the top of the chat window. There choose “audio”. Now you can record a message and check it before you send it.
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@badger: I think the need for a GMail-addres is to allow only certain (logged into Chrome) people to access the closed beta, which is now unecessary because it is acessible to everyone now. But I really do not understand why OWS made the Desktop version to be a Chrome-App and not a Java-App or a native program…
I did the trick with installing Chromium, an open source Chrome alternative which can run Chrome-Apps as well.
All in all, I don’t know what to think of Signal. On one side, it’s a easy to use and (at the moment) relatively secure, well-designed messenger with lots of features, but on the other hand Moxie’s decisions to stick with Google all the time really makes me want to puke. 
Don’t get me wrong, they just asked me for my Gmail account (which i don’t have) in order to regsiter for the beta test, it definitely isn’t necessary to use the Chrome extension. I only wanted to illustrate how much Google focussed they are. Scary.
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After discussing a bit with @Stefan via Kontalk voice messages about Kontalk and Signal, I my opinion is the following:
Signal is the better messenger, and while Kontalk goes more in the direction of security Signal goes more to usability which is more important to the average user.
BUT: Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Signal, has very strange and (for me) unreasonable opinions regarding F-Droid and Open Source.
Now I came up with the following solution: Open Whisper Systems should employ @daniele_athome as main Signal developer instead of Moxie and everything would be fine!
Yeah, and my opinion is that if Signal would invest all their innovation back under the umbrella of the XSF we would all live in a happier world.
Oh, and an idea of mine: The XSF should issue something like a “mobile messenger label” that sets a standard that can compete with proprietary and non-libre networks (i.e. an extended XMPP core).
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My opinion is that Signal must have an option to work without GMS (aka Google Play Services).
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@Stanzi
It is difficult to compare Signal with Kontalk on many levels, as the resources are ofc massively different. But wouldn’t this discussion better fit under this thread? I don’t see the point of starting another one. If you agree, I will move this there.
@Stefan
Afaik, and please correct me if am wrong, Signal has nothing to do with xmpp. Unless you were making a bold request for them, or referring to Kontalk.
@Buranek
You can for now use Noise, a fork of Signal from Copperhead OS. They provide an f-droid repository.
But lets keep this related to Kontalk.
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Please give me a link to Noise.
@Buranek there is actually a beta version available right now without GCM
@tetris4 Yeah, I think @Stanzi raised enough attention! You can move it. 
I thought that Signal is simliar to Whatsapp in that regard, since they share the same encryption protocol. So yes, I was making a bold request!
Regarding Signal, F-Droid and a non-GCM apk:
@Buranek
You can add the Copperhead repository on fdroid and refresh, you will then see Noise as available:
https://www.fdroid.copperhead.com/repo
Have in mind this is built for CopperheadOS specifically, so it might give you issues. It works fine here (custom CM12.x) for now but without voice/video calls.
@Stefan Interesting, I had not idea about WhatsApp implementing xmpp, thanks for pointing it out.
Signal
- Uses non-free translation platform
- Requires CLA to contribute translations
Kontalk
+ Uses free translation platform
+ No CLA for translations
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There is an interesting ongoing discussion on Signal regarding federation and decentralization.
I would recommend reading both the blog entry and the comments on twitter, especially the responses by Signal.
Is Signal right? How easy would it be to do the same on a Kontalk network of servers?
That’s an interesting issue.
As Signal team said on Twitter, in case of a federated network, censors would simply block all servers (which are in a limited amount anyway). To counteract censorships I only see two possible ways:
- a P2P system (IMHO I believe the world is not ready for that yet)
- something that changes so often (and unpredictably) that censors would find it hard to block (e.g. some sort of “IP address fronting” (you get the meaning), but the question to be able to resolve it from a hostname would remain)
The case for Kontalk is a very delicate one at the moment because of the single server involved (the second one has been inactive for some time now). Besides the distributed load factor for needing multiple servers, censorship can cause real damage to Kontalk at the moment.
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p2p seems to be getting there slowly but steadily, with applications like Briar, Ring and Tox all being active.
It’s great to have these as alternative solutions, especially for people that have to worry about censorship, aggressive surveillance and even internet services being blocked.
I’f just found https://delta.chat/
This looks for me like a good addition to XMPP system (with OMEMO for perfect security).
This “messenger” is SMTP based and uses autocrypt.
I think a system like this is hard to block by governments.
And it’s absolutely platform independent and compatible to every mail client.