In light of what's happened to Durov and possibly seeing Telegram compromised, I'm doubling my efforts to find a new main messenger. Before you start, not Signal as it's a bad fit for the needs of me, my family and friends.
So what do I need?
The ability to run on multiple devices. Me, my family and friends all have multiple Android devices.
The ability to run on desktop. Linux and Windows.
Built in sticker repository. What can I say, I like to lazy flirt.
Animated Emoji. I like my messenger experience vibrant.
Material You. Again with the vibrancy, but also, it's a sign of modernity.
Phone number linking. My family and friends are lazy as hell.
Synchronized chats. I don't mind self hosting a bridge, but the ability to see messages on multiple devices is a must.
Voice Messages
Video Calls
Group Video Calls
Stories integrated into as first class citizens
Private. If you suggest WhatsApp, I'm assuming you're either stupid or a troll.
Not sure about 1 as we run it on our tablet so it definetly can be linked to other devices but we aren't sure how many.
7 can be done by linking devices, so not sure what is meant by this.
Edit: ah, okay, so seems the Signal app itself cannot be linked to multiple Android devices, including tablets, that's pretty bad. The Molly fork can work as a linked devices though, however Signal only supports linking 5 devices at the same time.