Which instant messenger would Tor back the most?

General Discussion
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I’ve made the dreadful mistake of attempting to research which messaging app is the most trustworthy in 2022 but its just led to more confusion than answer. Lots of security focused people are now moving to Telegram which requires a phone number and they say don’t use Signal because it requires a phone number and is based in 5 eyes. Others say Element is good, then people say to just use Matrix as that’s all Element is. Briar is an option but its only on Android so has a massively restricted audience. I know some of these apps incorporate Tor but which one would Tor Project likely recommend? Snowden recommends Signal but then says a SIM card can be traced to within 4 feet of its actual location?

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After eleven beta releases, we discontinued support of Tor Messenger. Read more here: Sunsetting Tor Messenger | The Tor Project

That said, IMO some apps are very interesting:

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Thanks for your response, personally I think Cwtch looks the best but I do have two questions which they don’t cover in their FAQ.

They say a background Tor connection is created: 'At startup Cwtch launches a Tor process so that it can setup and connect to v3 onion services."

Is there any risk that this v3 service could be hacked and used to deliver malware? Secondly, since its a direct Tor connection wouldn’t it be blocked in some countries unless they add a VPN first?

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I haven’t tried it, and it may not be an instant messenger, but have you taken a look at Onionshare and it’s chat features?

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Check out the Cwtch Secure Development Handbook for more details:
https://docs.openprivacy.ca/cwtch-security-handbook/
:slight_smile:

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Thanks for the link! Do you work with developing it or are you a personal user? I ask so I know who to bother if I have issues :wink: :upside_down_face:

The biggest difficulty in convincing friends to download and join the app will be the lack of ability to add contacts through username alone rather than an obscure invite code but I understand the reason why its designed as such.

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You’re welcome. I’m a user and a tester on the Release Candidate Test Group. I really couldn’t code my way out of a wet paper bag but I do have a reasonable grasp of the concepts involved. Keep in mind that Cwtch is in very early development, although I think you know that. (It might have been you who posted there yesterday?) I would say that there has been good progress and I figure it’s worth supporting, principally because of the skill and commitment of the development team (tiny though it is).

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