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Signal and Giphy

whispersystems.org

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Re: Signal and Giphy

#81

Post by codethief »

knz wrote: post #77
morsch wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a desktop client. It's packaged as a Chrome app. Some people downthread think a "decent" desktop app must be (more) standalone. You seem to think a "decent" desktop app should live inside a browser tab. It's hard to make everybody happy. People need to stop claiming there is no desktop app just because the very clearly existing one does not fulfill their own arbitrary set of criteria. I don't know if you can…

I don't mean to be negative about Signal. I appreciate the work they have put into it and understand that the platform is maturing - as you said, they can't please everyone. The chrome app vs tab is definitely a minor issue related to user preference. It's not a deal breaker for me personally but others in my network (who are less concerned about privacy) will not switch if it's not easy. Not being able to sign out i…

On Android there's a button in the conversation settings to block the other party.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#82

Post by miend »

MikusR wrote: post #31
dsacco wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Empirically, absolutely nothing. You can't judge the security of a software based on its marketing material.

But you can determine that nobody at signal has used or even seen an android phone.

I'm not sure why you would say something like that. The original TextSecure and Redphone apps were exclusively on Android until it got bundled into a single app and released as Signal on both platforms. Android is still often ahead, and seems preferred much of the time.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#83

Post by tdkl »

CoryG89 wrote: post #41
tdkl wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to specifically click a button to use it. That's a good compromise between jumping through hoops to enable it if opt-in.

I think it would be acceptable if these types of things were on by default, and have the option to disable it or opt-out.

Yeah perhaps, but that would complicate the app development quite a bit. I'd rather see company invest developer time in other ways - maybe bringing desktop client support.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#84

Post by jhasse »

wtbob wrote: post #76
aluhut wrote: post #60

It makes me sad so see that they waste time on decoration like gif search but they don't have a client I can use on my PC for example.

I wish that they'd support secure contact sharing. And non-phone-number IDs.

Telegram supports non-phone-number IDs btw.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#85

Post by knz »

codethief wrote: post #81
knz wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to be negative about Signal. I appreciate the work they have put into it and understand that the platform is maturing - as you said, they can't please everyone. The chrome app vs tab is definitely a minor issue related to user preference. It's not a deal breaker for me personally but others in my network (who are less concerned about privacy) will not switch if it's not easy. Not being able to sign out i…

On Android there's a button in the conversation settings to block the other party.

Thanks - I see it in there now. For anyone else looking for it, it's under options/conversation settings when you are in conversation view. Thanks again.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#86

Post by makomk »

Bartweiss wrote: post #55
raverbashing wrote: post #28

Good They know that for a bigger adoption they need those usability improvements, at the same time, they make sure additional features don't compromise the security expected from their app

I've been really impressed with Open Whisper's focus on usability and functionality. So many privacy products take the stance of "if you care about privacy, you won't want to do this", and it seriously harms uptake.

Meanwhile, people are accidentally leaking their phone numbers and their contacts' phone numbers because Signal replaced fingerprints that could safely be posted publicly with QR codes that can't, and didn't explain it: https://twitter.com/webster/status/793657469381713920

Re: Signal and Giphy

#87

Post by adrianN »

aluhut wrote: post #71
verroq wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't know if this comment is serious. My girlfriend won't use Signal because it doesn't let her send stickers. This is only a first step in the right direction.

And when she has them, it'll be something different ridiculous. Seriously, this is what whatsapp is for. I don't see why we have to dump down EVERYTHING for those people. From my own experience the biggest reason is that "my friends are elsewhere". I force my gf to use signal, her mother started to use it too because of that and because she wants to have PC problems solved by me. Same goes for other people that want…

Encryption is only really useful when everybody participates. Otherwise you just have to arrest the people using it. So dumbing it down is actually pretty important.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#88

Post by nickik »

aluhut wrote: post #71
verroq wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't know if this comment is serious. My girlfriend won't use Signal because it doesn't let her send stickers. This is only a first step in the right direction.

And when she has them, it'll be something different ridiculous. Seriously, this is what whatsapp is for. I don't see why we have to dump down EVERYTHING for those people. From my own experience the biggest reason is that "my friends are elsewhere". I force my gf to use signal, her mother started to use it too because of that and because she wants to have PC problems solved by me. Same goes for other people that want…

You call it 'dumb down', I call "useful way of communication". Gifs are a form of communication. You might not use it, but most people do.

Signal will not get traction because people want to have their PC problems fixed by Nerd friends. My IT club group chat are all nerds, yet we still do not use Signal, because things like gifs were missing.

The Strategy of Signal is to make a mass market chat client that is save. Not a nerd utopia chat client.

> EVERYTHING

Everything? Really?

I don't remember my mother asking for reproducible APK compilation. I don't remember her asking about the the forward security properties of the communication protocol.

Re: Signal and Giphy

#89

Post by jhasse »

cryptarch wrote: post #27

Is there a federated and/or self-hosted alternative to Signal with similar privacy and security properties? Even if it supports fewer platforms? I've been getting more and more interested in running my own (and perhaps my friends') infrastructure, but I haven't found anything better than IRC for chat.

What about XMPP / Jabber?

Re: Signal and Giphy

#90

Post by nickik »

my_ghola wrote: post #70
lucastx wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People underestimate a lot the power of "useless" features, if well designed, to attract new users. Telegram's Stickers are probably one of the features that most people feel other messengers lack to make people enjoy using it. Lots of friends are actually communicating daily through GIF's.

The desktop client without having to have my phone around is useful too.

There is a desktop client. Even if you don't use chrome/chromium, keeping it open somewhere is not impossible task.
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