I’d like to be able to chat from an Android phone without a SIM card.
SimpleX chat does video calls.
From all of us who donate to FSF.org To the world
A Free-as-in-speech-and-beer solution
Happy Newton’s birthday
Jitsi
With Jitsi you can also self-host the server-side components if that’s your thing: https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/devops-guide
You can use element for that, just don’t use a matrix.org account.
Why not matrix?
matrix.org is one instance, the biggest one. Guessing they require a phone number.
It does not appear to require a phone number. It even looks like an email address is optional.
Ah ok. I haven’t used matrix in a while, but it didn’t require a phone then (several years ago), so I thought they were saying not to use matrix in general.
It looks like Session has video calls in beta.
Note that most services requiring a phone number for registration don’t actually require that phone number to be connected to a SIM card in the device you’re using. That may be helpful depending on your use case.
If you feel like setting up a stun/turn server it’s possible to set up your own using something like xmpp or next cloud talk. Works for individual accounts with friends if not a plug and go app.
I have an ejabberd server setup for my family for this reason. Using the Conversations app off F-Droid and Gajim on desktops
Threema
It’s around $5 for the app. No phone number needed. End-to-end encryption for chat and calls (audio/video). Desktop versions are in beta.
iOS and Android
Heres a cool new phone company that require no personal info Phreeli
Phreeli is overpriced and doesn’t actually grant much privacy despite their claims. Telecom providers can still have a field day with your location and sms/call data even if Phreeli isn’t collecting that themselves, which is also really just a pinky promise at this point. There are also competing services already which don’t require PII either but have more reasonable prices.
If you want a phone number just to sign up for signal or something just use jmp.chat smspool or mysudo depending on your needs.
I’m also looking at https://www.cape.co/
GNU Jami though I had trouble getting it to work reliably, and you have to install an app. YMMV.
Jitsi is decent, especially if you don’t mind using their server meet.jit.si (may have changed by now). It uses WebRTC (i.e. you can use it with just a browser) which I think is preferable to a mobile app.
I think there will inherently be some lag if you’re using a mobile phone at the client side, because of all the codecs, wifi latency etc.
This shouldn’t be that hard a technical problem especially if you’re ok with audio-only. I don’t know why the existing programs all have probs in some areas. Jitsi is nice to use but a pain to self-host from what I can tell.
I have a self-hosted nextcloud that has a video chat feature (Nextcloud Talk) but it’s not great.
I have been wanting to spend a chunk of time looking into the situation and finding a good answer, or at least identifying the trade-offs clearly.
self hosted matrix instance here
Why not just using a burner phone number?
Jutsi doesn’t require it, nor does Kmeet I think.
Not ideal, but I think Discord is offering E2EE for voice and video chat now.
