HACKER Q&A
📣 ColinWright

Voice and video with non-technical friends and family (repost)


I'd really like to get friends and family off Facebook, but one of the things they use it for is calling people, both voice and video.

So I'm looking for a replacement. Ideally whatever we use would run on both phones and laptops/desktops, preferably with a light-weight client. We would need audio, video, and screen-sharing would be useful. Ideally it would be P2P, and not controlled by a single entity.

Privacy is a concern as a general principle, and I'd like to be able to avoid joining another "community".

My betting is that such a thing doesn't exist, but I'd be interested to know what trade-offs people think are available and accessible for non-technical people. Matrix was one option, but I've heard that some people find it difficult to impossible to get audio and video working. Another option might be Tox, so I'd be interested in hearing of people's experience with that.

But all comments, suggestions, and thoughts welcome. Thanks.

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This is a repost to try to catch a different HN demographic. The previous discussion is easy to find, but it would be useful to get fresh opinions and feedback. My thanks to those who respond last time, and in advance to any who respond this time.

  👤 bradknowles Accepted Answer ✓
I’m trying to find a better solution for my wife’s family than Apple’s FaceTime. It does okay with just two participants, but beyond two, it starts failing miserably. I know it’s not a network problem, because I’ve had Chime video conferences with fifteen or more participants, and that’s worked fine. My wife has done zoom meetings with large numbers of people, and her problem is that when she does that from her iPad, the video angle makes her look bad, and we haven’t gotten it to work at all on her laptop.

So, I’m interested in finding a solution that is cross-platform (including mobile devices) and doesn’t require downloading an app. P2P would be a bonus, as would end-to-end encryption. But this is just for personal use, and I can make sure we are on VPN, so those two features would be a bonus.

Not FaceTime. Not zoom. Not Google. Not Chime.

I’ve looked at Jitsi Meet, but it doesn’t support iOS in the browser, although that is on the roadmap.

Anything else?