You must be running Android 14 or newer which uses the Material You style. There, you have the option to customize the color of your apps based on your wallpaper. You can also use ColorBlendr to select any color you like, independent of your wallpaper colors. It needs either root or Shizuku. If you are rooted you can have a more granular control over the UI elements being themed. If you only use Shizuku, you are more limited. However Shizuku is easier to use.

Fair. Friendica stayed well below the radar for pretty much the entire time, even though it sounded a bit familiar for me when I created this account a few years back, and it is also kinda the oldest platform in the Fediverse.

It has many of the features that regular Facebook has, like creation and attending to groups (even this Lemmy community is displayed as a group) as well as events and pages, but also some extra stuff non-privacy related like following RSS feeds directly, as well as supporting BB Code for formatting your text pretty much everywhere (in your posts, comments, in your profile descriptions or in the event descriptions). Not only it supports ActivityPub, but it also supports Diaspora and RSS (as said) and Tumblr and Bluesky (if you have an account there). Server admins can also install add-ons which add all sorts of extra functionality - from compatibility with other networks (with Tumblr, Bluesky or WordPress) to stuff like content filter or collapsing posts if they are not displayed in a language of your choosing (stuff that Facebook, again, doesn’t have).

And of course, it is not owned by Meta, nor it has the privacy invasive features of it, nor it does spy you across the web whether you have an account on it or not, nor does it pump billions into failed projects like the Metaverse only to later pull the plug, nor it invests into AI projects or spy glasses.

If you’re more curious about it, I wrote a handy guide myself here a while ago (I’m not involved into the development of it, but this was the best way I could contribute - and sorry for the Google site). There’s a server list here where you can pick your server (if you want a recommendation, pick friendica.world for the largest server, or loma.ml for a bigger selection of add-ons) and a video guide on both YouTube and [https://peertube.stream/w/p/4K4MWYXMEYUtVDqKjjq4Uu?playlistPosition=1]PeerTube](https://peertube.stream/w/p/4K4MWYXMEYUtVDqKjjq4Uu?playlistPosition=1) if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed. And there’s a support group at !helpers

One of the other advantages Friendica has over Facebook: they’re not paying outright nazis to post on the platform.

Yeah, xmpp is a great protocol, but everyone needs to be in the vicinity of the server

I’m also thinking about the possibility of blocking/hijacking the network by the law enforcement forces. If every device is also a node connecting to each other, they can be more hardly taken down I think.

meshtastic

I’m not so familiar with meshtastic, but wouldn’t be more helpful to have something that actually runs on people’s phones instead of having a separate device? I mean, as you said, everyone has phones, and with something like the Ripple app (or any other panic button app) you could hide the app or clear its data (or you could do it manually). With meshtastic, in the event of a search, I think you would be more suspicious, I think.

I frankly think there should be something like a Bluetooth-based protocol allowing for every messaging app to exchange messages, much like #XMPP. Then, even if you block one app, there will be others available that anyone can use with the people that managed to install that blocked app in the 1st place.

a link saver like pocket but simpler (mobile version)

I use Zettel Notes for this.

It’s still available as a separate game tho

wait, you mean they will deliver a finished bug-free product straight from the first release version? without the need of any bugfix? I’m surprised

You’re welcome. Stay safe!

I think you’re in luck here. You can use XMPP or Matrix as the other person said, and pick from the myriad of different servers to let the authorities play whack-a-mole with them. If you’re picking XMPP, suggest them one of the clients that support OMEMO (it uses the protocol used by Signal too; edit: most apps that support it are modern and in active development). Briar is another good option, since it uses Tor, but you both need to be online in order to receive messages from each other since it uses no servers (unless they and you use something like this on a spare phone).

An option that would likely be a better fit for what you’re looking for, but which I haven’t tried yet is SimpleX.

Whatever you pick, I think it would be a great practice for you to teach them to use a panic button app such as Ripple (not sure if that’s maintained anymore though).

Hmmm, that’s true. Probably OP checked this, but now that you mentioned it, I would do the same 😁

Screw that, they were reading all the foreign mail coming through. And you could still be unable to see if they opened your envelope because they were either carefully opening it and close it back, or simply use another one.

What happens with ordinary email by the way?

I expect it was previously appealing based on the fact that only the vendor had access (of course, now it no longer applies).

Maybe another option is to use one of the private providers that do not track you and are less mainstream than Proton. Let’s say Tuta or Mailbox.org (if they are not blocked already too). Probably encrypt the emails with PGP too for more security.

Tbh I’d probably use snail mail letters for anything private on the theory that the RU govt doesn’t have the resources to open all the envelopes

Hahahaha!

I’m not a Russian, rather Romanian. But I heard stories how all the mail coming from the outside was checked and “vetted for anything suspicious” at the border during communism. Since we and USSR were on the same team I suppose they did the same. And how the way the public institutions work barely changed, nowadays, given the current situation, I expect them to return to that practice.

So yeah, I wouldn’t trust snail mail with anything sensitive.

XMPP is more niche but on the other side more established. It has been used by both Facebook (now Meta), Google and WhatsApp (now part of Meta) to develop their platforms on. Up until recently you could still communicate with someone on Hangouts through an XMPP client, despite only with someone that was also on Hangouts (that was until they pulled the plug on that app). It didn’t support all the features but hey, it was there.

XMPP does have some modern clients too, but indeed, Matrix has been more designed with the 2020s in mind.

damn…

Or with Lemmy. I view it perfectly fine in Friendica

They likely won’t. More likely, the devs will put these products in the most funny places (say, billboards on the side of the road in American Truck Simulator). They’ll keep this thing running for ~5 years and they’ll axe it.

A while ago, I was arguing with someone (if I’m not mistaken) about how AI is incompatible with politics, law and democracy due to the nature of the whole process involved in writing laws. Now I notice that this is exactly the point. AI’s purpose has never been democracy. Democracy, as Peter Thiel and his followers argued, is an obstacle in the front of tech’s development, in the front of profit, of capital. As such, the logic solution is to get rid of it - and that’s exactly what Trump is doing.

You had me at first half lmao

How else do you want it to reach mass audience? Especially on Apple.

Had a friend telling me the same, lol. FWIW, I got into Metro after watching the series of The Linux Gaming Experiment, where Nick played Metro Exodus - so I kinda enjoy Exodus more, lol.