Gotta go with the crowd here. Signal is what you are looking for.

The only answer for what you are looking is Signal (user base). The next thing would be Whatsapp, so .... Signal... Just signal.

First Telegram isn't the "worst possible option for privacy" and second, as you pointed out, Telegram is largely superior to others when it comes to usability and cross planform support.

I want the answer to be Matrix. I think decentralization and federation are important to the future of internet services to avoid single points of failure, and Matrix seems to take E2EE seriously. So far, I've found Matrix to be slow and unreliable, with some of my private conversations having as many messages "unable to decrypt" as successfully delivered.

So the answer isn't Matrix yet, though I hope it will be in the future. The answer, as most comments have already said is Signal.

The only answer for what you are looking is Signal. So .... Signal... Just signal.

or Molly, of course :)

Easiest seems to me just enabling E2EE in telegram since it’s there. Asking to use secret chats seems easier than asking to switch plattforms

FB Messenger and Instagram Messenger would be the worst for privacy... But Telegram is basically just FB Messenger with nicer UX features.

There's a couple of platforms that have better privacy and security (debatable) features than Signal, but Signal is more widely adopted amongst the E2EE Messengers.

Signal?

SimpleX Chat > Matrix > others

Btw it's very difficult to change something in the routine, many people have your same issue; where I live WhatsApp is a fucking authority...

Signal is good but you can look into simplex chat or session

I think the only choice is Signal for practical purposes. There is no creating accounts, no scanning ID's, no invite link to chat. If they already know your number, there's nothing they need for you to contct you on Signal.

For people who I have their number, I will never ever acknowledge any other option than Signal because confused people don't end up making any choice. Only if they talk about servers and networks, then I will teach them network security. I say SimpleX F-Droid is king of them all, but for random people, I only mention Signal/Molly.

For the record, I will say that I am more willing to currently use Whatsapp than ever use Telegram. I can't speak to the cool features with Telegram because I hate it too much to register my number with them.

Matrix or Signal

Actually, I don't know why I had forgotten this already.

Link: DEF CON 31 - The Internals of Veilid, a New Decentralized Application Framework - DilDog, Medus4

Veilid. I watched this DEF CON presentation on it. I remember asking myself "How would this differ from Matrix and why do we need a competing standard?"

But actually, after watching, I do realize that in certain ways it seems more elegant and decentralized than even Matrix. It's really more focused for general application development, but that means chat can be developed on the framework.

So maybe put this on your radar as well while it's being developed. It certainly has jumped to my attention after watching this video.

https://veilid.com/

DMA will only affect Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger from messengers, Apple's iMessage manage to be excuded as they don't have 45 million active users (10% of EU population).

Edit: I said Google Messenger when I meant Facebook.

Signal fits all of your criteria.

• Has E2EE by default
• Has most generic UI possbile that just works
• Has a bunch of users
• Has clients for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux
• Has flashy features like stickers and stories
• Run by a non profit foundation instead of a single developer or for profit corporation

Signal does not support web app

as much as I want everyone to use something like Briar or Cwtch, Signal is the only viable alternative for normal people. Session maybe, but last time I tried it, it was buggy and it has a small userbase.

Matrix is slowly growing to feature parity with Discord and looks and functions a lot like Discord, which may make the switch over to it easier for some people.

I understand why Signal dropped SMS support, but that's literally the only reason I had it, and without the SMS support, I don't actually have more than one other person that uses it so it became pointless to keep using.

I just simply sent a message to everyone I kept in touch on Telegram to switch to Matrix/Element and guided them through the registration to a local homeserver thanks to one of my friends' blog posts.
The easiest way to convince your friends to switch is to just make the switch and help them sign up and use the service.

If they have Android, Conversations is great, not more complicated to use than your normal instant messenger, except for the account creation which works just like email (user@server) so not that difficult either.

I use matrix and setup matrix bridges to avoid this. If you are fine with a single user setup beeper should be easier. this way you use matrix yourself and your friends use whatever they want. (you can qemu an x86 android image, and pass a webcam, for whatsapp to work on the bridge)

Telegram is absolutely not the worst one. Those are whatsapp, facebook messenger, and viber. Telegram is not good, but I think it's an acceptable compromise