@apshamilton those are great alternatives that you pointed out, except for signal, which is a trap. Between Telegram and signal I definitely go for Telegram, even though these guys are saying telegram is quite insecure:
~~~ embed:1349363082108284929 twitter metadata:Y3J5cHRvX2NhcnN0ZW58fGh0dHBzOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vY3J5cHRvX2NhcnN0ZW4vc3RhdHVzLzEzNDkzNjMwODIxMDgyODQ5Mjl8 ~~~
And I have just wrote this specifically for you and anyone who cares about their own privacy, regarding fuc#ing signal:
https://peakd.com/hive-150329/@bodhi.rio/why-signal-app-is-such-a-fucing-trap-enptbr
How about Status IM?