Heyhey everyone,

I am going to switch from my Synapse instance (back) to Continuwuity in a month. The main reason I’ve been using it is to chat with family who are only on Whatsapp and iMessage (Yes, I tried getting them someplace else. Whatsapp ended up being that other place). Though I’m also in groups on other Matrix instances.

The main annoyances I had with using the bridge until now are:

  1. I need to open the app every two weeks on my second phone (which tends to get lost when I need it).
  2. The time my server went out for a couple of days also made me unsure of self hosting a bridge. I don’t mind if I can’t see some support messages for a couple of days, but I do mind not being able to get texts from family.

Compared to just using the app it’s a difficult proposition. But on the other hand I don’t have anything proprietary installed on my phone and I’d like to keep it that way if possible.

There is technically a third option by hosting an iMessage bridge, but I don’t have a spare Mac. And while my second phone is an iPhone, there is no documentation on how to bridge via a 64-bit iPhone. In this case however, there would be no two weeks access requirement.

I’d love to hear you guys’ thoughts and maybe some other way to tackle this!

Cheers!

  • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.netEnglish
    12·
    5 hours ago

    I tried hosting the bridge and it was hard to set up and unreliable. Right now I have WhatsApp installed on Graphene OS in a work profile so it doesn’t get access to all my contacts, only the ones I had to specifically add in this profile. In theory you can restrict it even more using labels but managing this was a pain in the ass.

    WhatApp will still know who are you talking to and you still have to run their app somewhere so in my opinion setting up the bridge just so I don’t have their app on my phone is simply not worth the hassle.

    • cerothem@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      4 hours ago

      My experience is the opposite, WhatsApp is my most reliable bridge requiring exactly zero intervention to reauthorize or troubleshoot.

      Your right you still have to have the app because of how it works. But you can’t bridge the calls anyways, I just have message notifications off.