Over time I’ve been on the lookout for social media for family to use. I haven’t really found anything suitable, key thing is that posting photos and videos needs to be user friendly. For example, Friendica all but requiring you to upload your video to YouTube and post the embedded video is just not gonna fly.
I’ve seen Zusam in the past, which looks like it could become something but I don’t think it’s ready for me to try to get extended family into. (It’s worth mentioning here that certain extended family have shown interest in using something like this)
Recently I’ve had a look around at some Enterprise social solutions, and have had a play with HumHub. It has a much more familiar look, things are separated into spaces that are similar to Facebook groups, and while media uploads aren’t perfect I think they will work well enough.
HumHub has modules, many of which cost a decent amount of money, because they target the enterprise market. However, the community version is open source and the base features and free modules seem to work well.
Does anyone have experience using it? Any warnings I should know about? Any similar software that does a better job?
Why not a private Lemmy instance?
Man ive been looking for something like this for a long time and never found a suitable option.
Post i had before about this same topic.
Humhub wasnt a solution for me since most of my family uses iPhones and not having a dedicated app would confuse them.
I notice their website says they are working on releasing apps for Android and iOS by the end of 2023. I can find the Android one but not the iOS one :(.
Luckily most of my family uses Android.
Now you mention it, I remember seeing your post. Disappointing that you never found something. Was the lack of iOS app the only thing that put you off HumHub?
The lack of ios app deterred me from even testing it. I play tech support for my family enough to know an app would be necessary.
It really is an enterprise solution and I doubt your family will be happy with it.
Why not just set up a Snikket server and use that? You can easily create group-chats and share pictures and videos there and the interface is similar to WhatsApp.
The idea of a snikket server is good, but I feel it’s not much different that any other chat app. HumHub works on both mobile and desktop, and provides many features above a chat app. It’s more similar to Facebook groups (which people are already familiar with) but without the spying, whereas I don’t get the benefit of Snikket over say Signal.
What is it that makes it unsuitable for families? It seems to be pretty familiar feeling to people used to Facebook.
Isn’t Snikket just a fork of Conversations for Android? It doesn’t look like it’s any better either.
Conversations+Prosody all the way.
Conversations says to purchase on the play store. I don’t think I’m gonna get good uptake it every user has to pay money.
It’s free on f-droid, though? https://f-droid.org/packages/eu.siacs.conversations/
Fdroid is not suitable for the average person. The average person can install an app from google play, but Fdroid is quite a jump in steps, not to mention all the warnings that Android gives them, all but telling them not to do it.
Hey there! HumHub sounds pretty promising for what you’re looking for. It’s great that it has that Facebook group-style setup since it’s something a lot of people are familiar with. The community version being open-source is definitely a plus too. I’d say give it a spin and see if your family vibes with it.
What I’m trying to avoid is on boarding a bunch of people to some platform then working out that it doesn’t work for us and having to get everyone set up on a new platform! I was hoping to hear from others who had tried it, or others who have other solutions that work for them.
