Yeah that’s nice, but that premise & use-case is already delivered,
Session does all of that, just in their own “tor-like” network;

Also session is a fork of signal without the need of a phone number, you get an “Account IDs” instantly.

Cwtch is doing the same on the Tor network itself, which is great, if tor’s speed / performance is dealt with…

So, what does Cwtch do extra?? Also does it (Smoothly) support obfs4 bridges for firewalled users?

Also, website lacks some technical details, like being a rewrite (& extention of) of Ricochet as stated in their repo & Security Handbook unlike their website’s homepage saying “The Cwtch protocol”…
But the Docs seems nice & the whole app would be a good option next to session, just wha else it offers?

???
No?
I said you can run way waydroid on a Wayland Desktop to natively run streaming apps on your RPI5. (Plex, Youtube, netflix or whatever service you’re on)
This has nothing to do with your TV remotes nor hdmi-cec.
(reads description again) oh…

No, IR input support is now integrated into the linux kernel [BPF] & can be manually done with LIRC,
Well I don’t have a RPI to test this nor use my TV remote to control media, just for volume;
Can’t say for sure if Rasbarian supports most remotes ether, but LineageOS TV Does (Scroll),

Sorry, I can’t help with that, however, a budget, 2.4GHz, wireless mouse was enough for me, maybe KDE Connect or Unified Remote (non-free) can help if you wanna use your phone instead.

CEC support is up to the (media) software &or OS you’re using, waydroid is a container-like “runtime” to boot android on linux without virtualization, it’s not a an OS that supports IR input or shutting your TV with your TV Remote, I don’t think most desktop enviroment does support it nor must, KDE Bigscreen might but it’s a DE tailored for such use…

So, if launching plex with your TV remote is a priority, then here’s Android(TV) & a Custom Recovery (Gapps & Root Flashing) for RPI5 so you can treat it as an android box.
(unoffical tho, seems like LineageOS team into the BananaPi instead)

I wasn’t going to reply, but when I thought about it, you can install wayland on top of linux.
The kind of benefit you’re getting out of this is better driver support (from the kernel) & less resource usage (lightweight distro + wayland on background = 2GB~ish ram usage).
Also it’d be easier to get Gapps running (if you need it) on waydroid rather than rooting lineageOS TV to do so.
I tried it once & it was more than enough for light gaming, IDK about plex but hardware acceleration is supported since there’s no VM tech utilized (nividia isn’t supported tho).

Most linux distros with wayland should be enough, but check Wayland install page just to be sure it’s well supported (by distro), I see void-linux & ether configured labwc or KDE plasma should fit your needs better.

Hey!
Where’s invidious?? the option to self-host your web yt client??
Or just using yt-dlp?

(tho, I lightly use yt nowadays, the content is getting satire…)

I never tried it but, LibreELEC is focused for mediastreaming usage.
You just need to get confy with Kodi and it’s plugins.

So more ppl are re-purposing old, legacy win7 machines despite security risk…
Completely clueless about anything linux or floss in that matter wether even if there where lighter distros with better hardware support & enough apps for everyday office needs & more.

Like win7 can’t even run any UWP apps, photoshop or steam anymore.
It’s great livin’ in 2025

Completely out of topic but,
I just noticed that this post has more comments than upvoted 🤣

:O uhhhhm, Great!! 👍 Don’t mind me, I accidentally wrote a whole blog

WARNING: this reply have 2 ounces of opinion-like ““facts””, a pinch of logic that make 0 sense & a whole bottle of chunky post,
Read, at your own warrenty…

Of course, signal, molly&unipush or even threema or anything more practical / security-audited is more worthy of your phone number and storing your data in an encrypted form,
I’d recommend conversation or matrix even more so they don’t require a phone number(but for some reason, they’re more scarce in usage)

Since messaging apps have to do with, well, messaging people & socializing, going to a person that doesn’t have your app & genteelly asks them to install an app is an inconvenience that people want to avoid…

Don’t get me wrong, I’d spend an hour talking messaging apps their differencies & cons but, as far as I’m aware, most non-tech invested ppl would consider this “dead-time” and would rather already text on the “avaliable app”

So, instead, you’d preinstall “mainstream” apps to not even mention it and start texting instandly since you’re usually expected to have it (pre)installed. (i remember whatsapp and fb-messanger being preinstalled on some vendors)

This or use imessage & make them question their existence :) Even on android

To the best of my knowledge, the top “mainstream” apps out there are:
whatsapp, telegram, discord (yes, DiScOaRd), imessage and sadly, facebook messanger.

(I know signal is getting recognised in “mainstream” & getting more adoption, but for some reason, I don’t see ppl installing it because it’s not “that” viral to have enough contacts or it would go unoticed by them because “muh FBI and privacy controversies are too creepy” )

most ppl are aware of these apps and their mass adoptions so they wouldn’t even bother and just get it done with or install the app already.

Out of these options only 2 are actually viable for secure & private messaging especially for Floss: Telegram, for being “transparent” & having it’s source avaliable for security auditing. imessage: for being E2EE encrypted by default with The Manufactureᵀᴹ showing some dedication about the anonimity & security of the product.

Telegram don’t E2EE by default, but you can just start a secret chat that would be private, at least they allowed for foss, third-party clients & made their own “proxy” while encoraging VPNs,

imessage can’t be really called floss because the offical client isn’t & is also gate-limited by The Manufactureᵀᴹ , but at least it has a foss unoffical client that still faily usable (with the compromise of needing MacOS “installed & certified” or paying for an access token.

Outside of this, there’s really no scope for consideration, most messaging apps that made it to “mainstream” ether doesn’t care about their users securities & would actively report anything big bros for " the general safety of the userbase" or be a hidden honeypot that collect dats & sell it to advertisers while lying about it. (even whatsapp does that & think we’re dumbies),

When one starts to pick for messaging applications, there’s no “choice”, “consideration” or even the qualities to think if it genually a good platform, you’re left with only dedication to utilize a messaging app for what it offers & push your circle of people to join you there…

You may convince your friends, but you can’t convince your coworker, team, boss, partner of a project, your online fellas or even your family memebers depending on their tech literacy.

OP didn’t consider ditching whatsapp, instead, they considered methods to hinder whatsapp’s privacy violations & telemetry, I’m not OP but, that’s seemingly the case;

Even if they run whatsapp on an sandboxed, private space & use a 20 yr-old trash phone, running whatsapp at all on android is a risk since android has lots of APIs that provides device metadata that can be used to uniquely profile users & fingerprint them.

I can be wrong, but I see only 2 actions OP can do:

1. Utilize whatsapp web (& android vm to scan) to setup a bridging server / service (like matrix-bridge or beeper & make devices connect to it (port forward, local “vpn” or beeper) or,
2. Push their circule of people to use an another “mainstream” platform OP can trust…

Sometimes, having online conversation can be totally inconvenient or tiresome, not only because of whom, but how, this is one of them…

I don’t like telegram at all, especially so with the latest policy change but, it’s easier.

I see,
But at this rate, you gonna always make sure whatsapp runs on a VPN AND behind a kill switch so it doesn’t leak,

also maybe you’re interested in using tailscale or netbird to skip the port forwarding / domain hassle so you can connect to your matrix server and use the bridge in minutes.

There’s a new foss netbird client for android if it satisfies.

Cool, especially more so on PWA.
But I’d still recommend having ironfox for general browsing & not throwing privacy to the window.

(You won’t believe it but, I just wrote a blog-size reply and accidently deleted it for trying to put it on a pastebin service…)

Don’t!
Your whatsapp session will expire over time & you gonna need to reinstall it on your phone.
Ether install whatsapp on private space or, if you feel adventurous, selfhost a Matrix-Whatsapp bridge.

Alternatively, convince your socials to use smh foss & more reliable,
Maybe telegram if they insist on mainstream,
It got a foss client but telegram doesn’t enable E2EE by default (Secret Chat).

"Casually reminds you that Ironfox exists & it’s a lot more “private” than most chromium-based browsers, & has ublock origin. (slow by default tho)

also while aurora store doesn’t verifies signatures, is has Exodus integrated which dynamically analyses & warns about spyware, tracks and telemetry so you more caucious about the littered “free” apps…