-what menssaging app should i use for secure communications? i need an app that balances simplicity and security.

Define "secure communications".

Do you just not want to have all of your conversations to go into the pool of training data for LLMs? Signal is probably fine for that. You can also consider Matrix, although that has a LOT of caveats.

Do you want to commit crimes? Are they the "everyone does them" kind? Or are they the kind that can get you executed like "speaking out against the regime"? If the former? Signal is, again, probably fine. If the latter?

This is where you need to learn: The moment you rely on someone else to handle your privacy for you, you have none. What does that mean in this context? That means that if some company is exchanging keys for you then they inherently have those keys. And you can only trust them as far as they have been audited... and how recent that audit is.

So take a lesson from journalists. Exchange your keys ahead of time. This might be a proper public/private key pair or it could be as simple as a cipher (I suggest avoiding hotel bibles, but you do you). And then you communicate using that encryption/cipher. At which point it doesn't matter what you use (but maybe avoid google and facebook for obvious reasons...).