TL;DR: It's better than most alternatives, imo
Nice to have something which at least pretends to be decentralized.
I've read some about the backend network having some undesirable quirks to it, like having to put up ("stake") a few thousand bucks in order to "validate" your node on the network.
They do have the option to completely avoid using google services by not using google cloud notifications--removing most minable metadata from your comms.
As a side note: If you want to use an encrypted comms protocol which won't ever die, look at Silence (f-droid.org). It's basically PGP-over-SMS. You won't ever need to update it and it won't die so long as SMS texting is around.
It is extremely useful to have as a fallback mode of communication.
Silence looks good, but between it and Session, which one would you pick if privacy was the main concern?
Silence, as it relies on PGP to secure your comms, and is otherwise ttransparent.
The idea with PGP is that you don't care who can see your messages because they are end-to-end encrypted using public/private keypairs. Silence utilizes this in a very pure way.
There are a couple considerations, I'll pro/con it to make it easier to compare
Silence
Pros * Pure end-to-end PGP encryption over SMS * You don't need to update it. If you and your friend have silence and have exchanged public keys, you will always be able to communicate securely with your friend.
Cons * It uses SMS, which means you need a cell provider and they can see that you are sending encrypted messages between phone #1 and phone #2. But that is all they can see (no message content is exposed, as it is e2e encrypted via PGP) * It's SMS, video sending is laughably bad.
Session
Pros * More modern, can send 5MB videos and pictures via other devices. * Cross-platform: App exists on apple app store and google (though android will always accessible via f-droid or direct apk install) * No phone number associated.
Cons * Due to the size and complexity of the backend network, it is hard to know if there are backdoors and/or the nodes you are routed through are spying on your comms * Needs to be updated regularly to stay in-sync with the backend network * Most people will install from the official app stores which almost guarantees it will be backdoored eventually.
I have both myself. I use session when sending media, but fall back to Silence when I want to ensure a text message gets to the recipient, and gets there quickly.
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