Delta Chat

The internet provides plenty of opportunities for people to get along and chat, and with so many platforms out there, it's primarily about picking the one that most of your contacts already use. This is how WhatsApp snowballed to popularity, but due to the concerns regarding Meta's data protection policies, people have grown distrustful of the app.

Where to go next, then? There is no shortage of alternatives, so why not try something up-and-coming, that is both easy-to-use and respects the user's privacy? DeltaChat looks promising in that regard: there's no tracking or central control via servers, because all communication is handled through e-mails.

While the installation doesn't involve anything complicated, users will initially have to log through their email when first starting the app. If you have a Gmail account, you'll have to change a few settings. We had to switch the Allow less-secure apps feature on, due to how connection is handled through the access token. There are other ways to go about this, and the developer offers a tutorial on their website.

After that, everything went well, and we were able to connect to the program just fine. The interface is much like any other chatting platform, so getting around it shouldn't pose any problem.

You can start chatting with your friends right away: prompt to create a new chat, and the contacts will be taken from your email's address book. In our case, the people we'd exchanged mails with in the past would appear in the address book. We could start a chat without difficulty, and the program allows users to send images, documents, as well as videos up to 18 MB in size.

There's nothing to worry about if your contacts do not have the app installed: you can still message them, and they'll be able to reply to you through their e-mail client. You can save important conversations and archive chats, and everything is encrypted end-to-end. The back-up process is worry-free, so if you ever need to switch devices, you can carry those messages over.

DeltaChat is a versatile and secure instant messaging platform, so if you're looking for something different from the mainstream offering, consider checking this out.