Mastodon MigrationGlobal Switch Day. February 1st 2025.
Spread the word.
Switch to Public Social Media
X to Mastodon, Instagram to Pixelfed, WhatsApp to Signal, Facebook to Friendica, YouTube to PeerTube, TikTok to Loops
Some feel like Matrix is a better alternative to WhatsApp due to its being decentralized.
X to Mastodon, Instagram to Pixelfed, WhatsApp to Matrix, Facebook to Friendica, YouTube to PeerTube, TikTok to Loops
Here is a revised graphic:
James Wells
Jens LjungkvistWhy?
Signal is super easy to use for anyone. Matrix, while decentralised, takes some work and prior knowledge to get going.
Don't have enough knowledge to have a horse in this race. Just presenting both options.
Sure. My horse is to have people join the alternatives instead of staying with FB, Twitter and the likes.
Joe 
Delta Chat (@[email protected])
Signal has the most carefully designed cryptographic protocols that you can run on a central platform, thanks to Trevor and Moxie. They have truly inspired many end-to-end encryption advances everywhere in the last decade. Great stuff. However, Signal depends on Amazon/ DynamoDB, Intel/SGX , on Cloudflare, on Google Cloud ... and operations are expensive, with financing dependent on US jurisdiction and non-profit status there. Dear @[email protected] , isn't it time to revisit operational choices?
Sure. But we also want people to be able to join easily. Matrix isn’t joined easily. To me, Signal is like BlueSky. It isn’t the best option, but it’s far better than where everybody is right now. And we need to get people moving and checking out the options.
@jens @mastodonmigration , supporting the mega companies of this world often makes them act above the law and just doing things because they're comfortable leads to things like these:
https://proton.me/blog/big-tech-pays-fines-under-3-weeks
https://proton.me/blog/big-tech-pays-fines-under-3-weeks
chebra@jens @Antigrav @mastodonmigration look how difficult it is to dislodge then from facebook. How long will it take to move them from bluesky once it inevitably turns bad? It's a trap!
@chebra @Antigrav @mastodonmigration
Let’s agree to disagree on that point. I think once you open yourself to change, changing again is easier.
In my professional life I’ve worked a lot in change and with change management. Working in change is a trainable skill. Hence my position.
@jens @chebra @mastodonmigration , I don't understand why that should be a point not to choose the better option.
@Antigrav @chebra @mastodonmigration
Joe, you realise you’re arguing with people already on the Fediverse? We already agree with you what the best option is.
Perhaps you should ask that question to the 27 million users on BlueSky?
william ⁂ maggosSignal compared to Matrix is like Bluesky compared to Mastodon. better than WhatsApp but not good enough.
Licho@wjmaggos @jens @mastodonmigration unlike Bluesky, @signalapp doesn't hold your social graph hostage by the explicit decision of the founder, Moxie. He disallowed handles in favor of phone numbers precisely because of that. To my knowledge the handles are still just aliases. He said that your phone book is your social graph. People are not and won't be hostage to Signal thanks to this decision. The companies only do #enshitificaton when they can get away with it.
samba 🍄@wjmaggos @jens @mastodonmigration
except for the fact that Matrix loves police gov and institution and Signal don't
it's not all about tech
it's also about trust
@jens @mastodonmigration every centralized walled garden is super easy to use, what's your point?
To have people leave Twitter, FB, Insta, Threads, WhatsApp etc. While I use matrix myself, I wouldn’t count it as an alternative for the masses. Not yet, anyway.
OhYeah@jens @mastodonmigration Sure but the same could be said (and often is) about mastodon and really every single suggested service on this graphic
Lyssa Chiavari@mastodonmigration Matrix is more like a decentralized/encrypted Discord, it's not really like WhatsApp unless WhatsApp has Discord-like features I was unaware of
Willing to cut a deal. . .I tried get #loops, and they aren't accepting new users at this time.
dansup@vor @mastodonmigration just wait an hour, they will be back shortly!
I was just checking because I got the same thing yesterday, and the day before.
It's not like I even use Messenger, I was just curious.
Gwyn Ciesla@mastodonmigration WhatsApp to signal. Slack/teams to Matrix.
Hugo@mastodonmigration matrix and xmpp are protocols not applicationa to use. You need a app to use these protocols. Correct?
liberloebi 📖@mastodonmigration Ceterum censeo: I prefer XMPP to Matrix for individual use.
Karel Brits 🔻@mastodonmigration hier kan je de afbeelding halen, @Pentaxke, al zie ik wel dat hier een alternatief voor Signal is opgegeven. Anders zoek ik nog even verder naar de originele.
Waffel@mastodonmigration Great! Thanks for giving an overview for people who like to migrate. And extra thanks for considering the #messenger issue. 👏 Although I prefer #XMPP aka #Jabber myself, I totally agree with #Matrix in this list. Bravo!
penworks OLD ACCOUNT@mastodonmigration @dansup matrix is great but it is technically a fuss. If you understand how encryption keys work it's easy, but, most ppl don't. But, Signal feeds the corpocloud beast. The challenge is for Matrix to make it easy to join.
Gonzalo🐧 🇨🇱@mastodonmigration Matrix? you should try XMPP, is lightweight, robust, descentralise and no one owns it.
-> @haileys.quest@g0nz4 @mastodonmigration no one uses it and all the clients suck, unfortunately.
hell you could use delta-chat and it would be better
hell you could use delta-chat and it would be better
Joel Wirāmu, Pauling@mastodonmigration
Jami is a much better alt than matrix wrt WhatsApp if you're avoiding signal. Matrix is more a discord equivalent; but then you have revolt which is probably a better get
Jami is a much better alt than matrix wrt WhatsApp if you're avoiding signal. Matrix is more a discord equivalent; but then you have revolt which is probably a better get
Mostafa228
Elaine Baker@mastodonmigration great graphic ! I have tried Friendica and Mobilizon a little, and I actually feel Mobilizon is better on the events and groups features that Facebook has than Friendica. Maybe recommend that Facebook users switch to both Friendica and Mobilizon ? https://mobilizon.org/
Andres Jalinton@mastodonmigration
Signal is just another centralized corporate network...
https://mastodon.hardcoredevs.com/@Andres/113924579135176058
Signal is just another centralized corporate network...
https://mastodon.hardcoredevs.com/@Andres/113924579135176058
Andres Jalinton (@[email protected])
Adjunto: 1 imagen Here, this is better: #GlobalSwitchDay cc: @[email protected]
Don't know enough about the Signal vs. Matrix subject to have an opinion, but Signal Foundation is a non-profit:
Got it. Thanks. Again, no specific expertise. Will add the Matrix graphic to the thread.
Anlu 
@Andres @mastodonmigration signal is not the best for freedom but is the best alternative for wp nowdays
Joxe Rojas 🥐@mastodonmigration Is there such thing as a #globalswitchday ‘official’ website where one can get the images and/or possibly translate them?
Thanks in advance :-)
@dansup @mastodonmigration Vielen Danke!
Oriol Piera
Carlos SolísI mean, it kinda works - as long as your email server is good enough AND the other users have Delta installed as well. But chat over SMTP/IMAP is unfortunately not too performant when dealing with large groups. For that, you'd need either XMPP or Matrix.
rtn@cortsenc @mastodonmigration @delta It works really well! I'm a bit surprised not more people suggested this but at least one did. The rest will be assimilated later 😁
Hans Boelens
Tofm2 🇫🇷 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@mastodonmigration Linkedin to what ?
Tim Makarios@mastodonmigration
One of these things is not like the others. Signal is a centralized silo. Try the Snikket/Jabber network instead (XMPP protocol).
maple@TMakarios @mastodonmigration Sure, install something that you will have to spend probably a half hour at a minimum figuring out (and if you are not technically proficient it will likely be much more that that) instead of a privacy focused app that only takes maybe five minutes to install tops. Who cares if Signal is "a centralized silo"? 99% of people couldn't care less, they just want something EASY to install and use, even if you are not an ultra geek. And nothing about XMPP is EASY if you are not an ultra geek, or have one in your life that will do the setup for you. (Well, there is one semi-easy path but they require a phone number, just like Signal, so no privacy advantage there).
@maple @mastodonmigration
I imagine most people who want the easy path, and don't care about centralized silos, will probably stick with WhatsApp.
These days, thanks to @snikket_im , there's a pretty simple app for both Android and iOS, with end-to-end encryption on by default. And they've put a lot of work into making it easy to host your own Snikket server, and give easy invitations to your friends to download the app and get an account on your server. There's a paid hosting option, as well as a docker container. Not everyone will be able to self-host a Snikket server, but I don't think you need to be an ultra geek any more.
Light Owl ☸️@TMakarios @maple @mastodonmigration @snikket_im Myself, I'd be interested in a self-hosted #snikket server if it were *not* offered as a #docker container. I'd like to run it/prototype it on a #RaspberryPi, as in ARM64/aarch64, on plain-Jane Raspberry Pi OS (#Debian-based). Installable from, say, extrepo would be great (like #Librewolf is these days). Or maybe included in official Debian 13 before the upcoming package freeze? That's asking a lot, I know. #XMPP
@sbb @maple @mastodonmigration @snikket_im
The Snikket server container actually runs Prosody, with carefully selected modules and configuration options. In fact, my own XMPP server (which I started before Snikket existed, I think) is now running on a Libre Computer single-board computer, on Debian (which does have Prosody in its main repository). I've adopted some of the Prosody modules that were designed for Snikket; the "invites" suite is particularly useful for getting non-techie friends to join you in the Jabber network: https://prosody.im/doc/modules/mod_invites
And you can look at the Snikket server source code and decide for yourself how Snikket-like you want to make your Prosody server: https://github.com/snikket-im/snikket-server/
The Snikket server container actually runs Prosody, with carefully selected modules and configuration options. In fact, my own XMPP server (which I started before Snikket existed, I think) is now running on a Libre Computer single-board computer, on Debian (which does have Prosody in its main repository). I've adopted some of the Prosody modules that were designed for Snikket; the "invites" suite is particularly useful for getting non-techie friends to join you in the Jabber network: https://prosody.im/doc/modules/mod_invites
And you can look at the Snikket server source code and decide for yourself how Snikket-like you want to make your Prosody server: https://github.com/snikket-im/snikket-server/
@TMakarios @maple @mastodonmigration @snikket_im thanks for that clarification, but there's a certain dotted line I won't cross, into what I consider will be too much hassle *to maintain over time*. Thus the asking for better packaging, making for easy, reliable upgrades/security updates.
@sbb @maple @mastodonmigration @snikket_im
Is there a reason you want to run it on a bare-metal Raspberry Pi, rather than in a container on a Raspberry Pi? (I prefer not to use containers, but clearly my preferences are different from yours in some ways, so I'm curious about why you're keen on bare-metal, but not keen on manually configuring Prosody.)
Is there a reason you want to run it on a bare-metal Raspberry Pi, rather than in a container on a Raspberry Pi? (I prefer not to use containers, but clearly my preferences are different from yours in some ways, so I'm curious about why you're keen on bare-metal, but not keen on manually configuring Prosody.)
@TMakarios @maple @mastodonmigration @snikket_im I consider Docker to be sort of like a shoddily-designed Operating System unto itself. It has its own ecosystem of where the containers come from, its own little world of management tools (I especially dislike #YAML in #Docker compose), its own security considerations, its own ins and outs, and its own sensitivities and gotchas. One server Operating System is all I want to have to learn: that of #Debian.
*I no longer like any sort of situation which I call "an Operating System within an Operating System"*. For example, I also don't like VMs: no VMware, no Virtualbox, no QEMU, no Redhat VMM, no Cockpit, etc. No guest additions that break across upgrades, etc. Been there, done that.
Raspberry Pis are so easily affordable, and easy to flash a new OS with Raspberry Pi Imager. Imager "pre-configuring" a newly-imaged install with a user account, an SSH server, etc? Brilliant. And there are so many great, inexpensive boot/storage options (MicroSD card, fast USB stick, SSDs, NVMes, etc). Flashing an Image *directly from the BIOS*? Highly underrated. These install media are all easy to back up and restore in bulk with zstd. raspi-config is so awesome for all the convenient things it makes available. All these innovations, taken together: that's the much-easier way I like doing it now. This ecosystem *for its ease of maintainability* beats all the above, hands down.
All my thinking follows from the self-respect and emotional well-being I afford myself through insisting on (allow me to repeat once again) *ease of long-term maintenance*. This includes backups, restores, roll-backs, etc.
@sbb @maple @mastodonmigration @snikket_im
OK, that makes sense. I'm not a Snikket maintainer myself, so I'm not about to volunteer to package it up in one of the ways you prefer, but you never know what they might do if enough people express an interest in having Snikket packaged like that.
OK, that makes sense. I'm not a Snikket maintainer myself, so I'm not about to volunteer to package it up in one of the ways you prefer, but you never know what they might do if enough people express an interest in having Snikket packaged like that.
@TMakarios @sbb @mastodonmigration @snikket_im "And you can look at the Snikket server source code and decide for yourself how Snikket-like you want to make your Prosody server". Do you not understand that over 99% of people have absolutely no desire to ever look at source code? Even among some people who have a nodding familiarity with Linux, most would rather have a root canal than go through source code, because to them it would be like trying to decipher ancient cuneiform tablets.