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When the first message appears, you are asked if you want to accept the contact.
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If your contact uses Jami on a smartphone, you can alternatively set up the connection using a QR code, which you call up using the button next to the ID (or name) and then scan it using the Jami mobile app. To contact friends or acquaintances, you need to get their IDs or just their usernames. In the middle, you will find your Jami username – if you use one – or your ID in the form of a cryptic combination of letters and numbers. The sidebar contains a search function and, later on, your saved contacts. The Register username option is only there to help other people find you through the search feature.Īt first, Jami shows you very little in the main window. įigure 2: Anyone who wants to can remain completely anonymous with Jami. Listing 1 shows you how to install Jami on Ubuntu 19.04 instructions for other distributions can be found on the project's website. The developers provide installation files and package sources for Fedora, Debian, and Ubuntu. Jami is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, as well as for smartphones with Android and iOS, and TV sets with Android TV. You only need to register with the service if you want to have a unique username that can be found using the messenger's search function – but this does not mean supplying any personal data. In a similar approach to BitTorrent, the Jami messenger uses a distributed hash table to set up its own network and can therefore do without central registration. This is not true for the open source Jami. Most messengers require central servers in the background, and this, in turn, means registering with your email address or phone number.
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At the top of the list of reasons why users choose one of these alternatives is the desire for more privacy.
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Away from the mainstream, smaller messengers such as Wire, Signal, and Telegram have carved out a niche for themselves. Over 1.5 billion users use this messenger, which Facebook acquired in 2014 for $19 billion. Today they are consigned to internet history, although some online providers still try to sell especially short or easy to remember ICQ numbers for thousands of US dollars.īut the world today uses WhatsApp. AOL, ICQ, MSN – the list of these once extremely popular messengers could be extended considerably.
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