Keeping your chats secure is a good idea, but end-to-end encryption is just the beginning of the list of options to consider when picking a messaging app.
Also, is there a secure way to directly send messages to someone else’s phone without the message having to be stored on a central server? As in they’re only stored on the recipient device. Is that even possible with how the internet works and how packets are routed between networks? Even if the server has no way of decrypting messages by default, just having the encrypted messages stored there is a liability because your encryption keys can easily get leaked by malware running on your device, phishing, etc.
element keeps a lot of metadata unencrypted. but it is federated, you can choose the server that has access to it (deny federation for the room or set up federation ACLs if important to keep it there), and because of the former it’s harder to just shut down.
signal doesn’t, in theory they don’t even know the recipient of your messages (but there’s a twist in that part as I remember), but it is centralized around US servers. it is easier to shut down.
How’s signal compared to Element?
Also, is there a secure way to directly send messages to someone else’s phone without the message having to be stored on a central server? As in they’re only stored on the recipient device. Is that even possible with how the internet works and how packets are routed between networks? Even if the server has no way of decrypting messages by default, just having the encrypted messages stored there is a liability because your encryption keys can easily get leaked by malware running on your device, phishing, etc.
element keeps a lot of metadata unencrypted. but it is federated, you can choose the server that has access to it (deny federation for the room or set up federation ACLs if important to keep it there), and because of the former it’s harder to just shut down.
https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/privacy/comments/1bqymdr/what_is_not_encrypted_in_element_matrix_client/
https://red.artemislena.eu/r/privacy/comments/da219t/im_project_lead_for_matrixorg_the_open_protocol/
https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/660
https://red.artemislena.eu/r/privacy/comments/1bqymdr/what_is_not_encrypted_in_element_matrix_client/
signal doesn’t, in theory they don’t even know the recipient of your messages (but there’s a twist in that part as I remember), but it is centralized around US servers. it is easier to shut down.