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!

Edit: Thanks everyone for the help! I’ve heard some awesome suggestions. I opted to keep using the bridge. Apparently you don’t need to open the app to refresh the biweekly timer, just run it in the backgroud. I happen to have a device that is on more than often enough for Whatsapp to refresh that timer in te background.

  • comrade_twisty@feddit.orgEnglish
    11·
    3 months ago

    I bought a dutch sim card (no registration) and a used android phone thats not linked to me to activate it. Then I made an whatsapp account with that number and I am only accessing it via whatsapp web on my graphene OS phone on a special profile with no acceas to my contacts. That profile also uses a dutch mullvad vpn server thats always on.

    I am not dutch and don’t live in the Netherlands.

    • Lemmert@reddthat.comOPEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      Actually our setup isn’t that different. I do have everything running behind Mullvad, including my server with the bridge on it. I also have a seperate, rarely used phone number. I don’t have Whatsapp on my GOS device though

  • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
    8·
    3 months ago

    I got my family using Signal. Then I stopped responding to them anywhere else. If it’s important they’ll do it.

    WhatsApp is and always will be annoying to use this way, and that’s intentional. They don’t want you using it this way.

    Lastly you can use RCS (Google Messages) to chat with iMessage users, but here you’re just trading Meta spying for Google spying.

    • Lemmert@reddthat.comOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Yes, my family sent me important messages on Signal for the couple of months we used it, but that was it. The issue lied with the other kinds of messages that I just didn’t receive anymore. I’m happy enough we got on a platform that is at the very least e2ee and where those other kinds chats still continue. Though I’m aware that metadata is being shared that wouldn’t be if we used Signal.

  • DeathByDenim@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    3 months ago

    Yeah, this is a tricky one. I was in the same situation. I set up an Android VM with just Whatsapp and had the bridge on Matrix. That allowed me to talk to my family. For a while… Then Meta banned my phone number.

    That was actually a good thing since now the Whatsapp option was permanently off the table. We installed Element on their devices and now they use that to communicate with me. They still use Whatsapp to talk among themselves though. Can’t really blame them for that since even government and most businesses use Whatsapp in the Netherlands.

    By the way, regarding the iMessage bridge, can’t you run macOS in a VM? The kholia repo makes it pretty easy to set up.

    • Lemmert@reddthat.comOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      A fair amount of smaller businesses in Belgium also primarily use Whatsapp.

      A VM is difficult for me since I only have a spare quad core laptop from almost a decade ago. So I’m sceptical on whether it will be able to virtualise an OS on top. And the bridges are hosted on a Zimablade. So I have my doubts there as well. Though I can definitely give it a spin in my free time, you never know.

      I do have my main computer where I do run VMs often, but I doubt my partner will be fine running that noisy thing overnight though.

      Ideally I would be running an iMessage bridge like you’re suggesting. Unfortunately I don’t have time to get it to work on my iPhone since the maumium docs mention it’s possible, but haven’t made a guide for it.

      I’ll definitely keep the VM thing in mind if I ever decide to replace the Zimablade. I doubt my family will let go of their Apple devices any time soon anyway.

      Thanks, I’ve really been appreciating everyones ideas here!

  • TheFool@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    5·
    3 months ago

    I used beeper for that because it enables you to choose between hosting the bridge on their server, hosting the bridge on your computer but using their homeserver which makes things way easier or just using the on device bridge in their app with no server (except iMessage because apple immediately patched every attempt of theirs so now you need a Mac to bridge it)

    The WhatsApp issue that you have to open the original app every few days is unavoidable sadly.

    • Lemmert@reddthat.comOPEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Yeah I thought about using it too. The two bridges are also developed by them. I wouldn’t have minded using their app instead, but I don’t have the Play Store on my phone (I’m on GOS). They don’t offer a regularly updated apk on their site like Whatsapp does either.

      Still thanks for the suggestion though!

      • SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        I wouldn’t have minded using their app instead, but I don’t have the Play Store on my phone (I’m on GOS)

        Any reason why you aren’t just using the Aurora store?

  • justme@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    i have Whatsapp in a frozen shelter to starts it every two weeks.

    recently i was thinking to have a second home server just for bridges, you should be able to use it federated. but didn’t try it yet.

    main point for me was the sheer amount of ghost users.