The need to wait for an SMS to register a new account and the potential for recaptcha loop (which I have experienced) is a serious downside to Signal. Something I never need worry about with xmpp, matrix or threema.

xmpp has a variety of clients for desktop and mobile. You cannot dismiss them all as having worse ux than signal.

The same is true for matrix.

XMPP.

Threema.

Matrix.

Had this issue with a gmail account about 7 years ago. It has/had 2fa. Haven’t used it much since then.

You sound like you haven’t used matrix in a while. I use it daily. It isn’t super slow to sync.

I use GrapheneOS but have zero contact with the so-called “community”. The project itself is awesome but as with many Linux/OS projects a lot of the people around it aren’t all the way there.

newsboat/ytfzf + mpv/yt-dlp, Freetube, Libretube.