What I’m looking for ultimately is a universal chat type app like Beeper that can handle Signal and SMS, however, reading this about it gives me pause. It would be nice if I could get all my peeps on matrix, but since it was so hard to get them on to Signal, I think the best I can hope for is something than can handle matrix, signal, and sms. Which brings me back to the title, how exactly do Matrix bridges work and are they secure?
EDIT: SMS is insecure by its very nature, yes?
I’m gettin’ old, and it’s an “old dog new tricks” type thing. However, I’ve still got it installed and probably just need to fiddle around with it some more. Getting Mrs. Hedge and my peeps to switch is going to be tough tho, hence me asking about the Signal bridge . . . Are “rooms” the same as “groups”?
There are a few more settings you can tweak than your standard messenger (e.g. message bubbles or timeline), but the day-to-day interaction should be fairly similar. Chat rooms allow you to chat with any number of participants. Matrix doesn’t really differentiate between “direct” chats and group chats, as you can always add more participants later. Spaces are a way to organise rooms, like a folder.
Why do you want them to switch from Signal? Federation? Other than that Signal’s great. Idk specifically about Signal bridge but I’m in a room with Telegram and IRC bridged and both bridges work pretty well. The room was bridged to XMPP as well but XMPP bridge was weird (resent random messages sometimes) so we removed it. Give it a try though and if possible tell me how it works? I’m curious :p