Signal for Beginners
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Signal for Beginners
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: Signal for Beginners
#2I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages.
Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will always be some sort of a tradeoff I guess. Although things seem to be getting better I am saddened by the lack of federation.
Re: Signal for Beginners
#3I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages. Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will al…
[deleted]
Re: Signal for Beginners
#4Ironic that Moxie, who doesn't go by his real name and is the founder of Signal, wants all of his users to identify themselves by providing their phone number and IMEI numbers; IMEI or 'International Mobile Equipment Identity' is a unique 15-digit number assigned to all cellular devices.
Re: Signal for Beginners
#5Ironic that Moxie, who doesn't go by his real name and is the founder of Signal, wants all of his users to identify themselves by providing their phone number and IMEI numbers; IMEI or 'International Mobile Equipment Identity' is a unique 15-digit number assigned to all cellular devices.
It's a usability problem. Can you think of anything easier? I can't.
Re: Signal for Beginners
#6Ironic that Moxie, who doesn't go by his real name and is the founder of Signal, wants all of his users to identify themselves by providing their phone number and IMEI numbers; IMEI or 'International Mobile Equipment Identity' is a unique 15-digit number assigned to all cellular devices.
It's a usability problem. Can you think of anything easier? I can't.
Agree that the majority of users desire for anonymity is without merit, but so is requiring users to identify themselves.
If a user is willing to put up with a less useful and usable version of Signal - they should be allowed to use it without identifying themselves.
Beyond this issue, there are others that me show a troubling pattern. For example, Moxie has refused to post a "warrant canary" for US National Security Letters.
In spirit, I like Moxie, in practice, I feel like he's the captain of ship flying a false flag.
Re: Signal for Beginners
#7I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages. Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will al…
Signal-Desktop does NOT require your phone to be on! After initial setup, it can be used completely independently of the phone (it only talks to the phone for contact sync, not messages). The opposite is often claimed on here and seems to be self-perpetuating, but it's wrong.
(edited for clarification)
Re: Signal for Beginners
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a usability problem. Can you think of anything easier? I can't.
Agree that the majority of users desire for anonymity is without merit, but so is requiring users to identify themselves. If a user is willing to put up with a less useful and usable version of Signal - they should be allowed to use it without identifying themselves. Beyond this issue, there are others that me show a troubling pattern. For example, Moxie has refused to post a "warrant canary" for US National Security…
Anonymity isn't Signal's goal, simple as that. If you're looking for anonymous messaging, you'll have to search elsewhere.
OWS recently received a subpoena and fought to be able to publish it (and their response), the only data they could provide were registration and last contact timestamps.
Re: Signal for Beginners
#9I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages. Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will al…
Signal-Desktop does NOT require your phone to be on! After initial setup, it can be used completely independently of the phone (it only talks to the phone for contact sync, not messages). The opposite is often claimed on here and seems to be self-perpetuating, but it's wrong. (edited for clarification)
Per the offical docs, you are required to create an account on a phone to use the desktop version:
http://support.whispersystems.org/hc/en-us/articles/21507785...
__________________
What do I need?
1. Register and set up Signal Android or Signal iOS
2. Download and install Google Chrome or use Chromium
+++++++ EDIT: Having to buy and throw away a phone to use a service that's intent is to provide privacy is what it is; worth noting you revised your comment after I posted mine.
Re: Signal for Beginners
#10Ironic that Moxie, who doesn't go by his real name and is the founder of Signal, wants all of his users to identify themselves by providing their phone number and IMEI numbers; IMEI or 'International Mobile Equipment Identity' is a unique 15-digit number assigned to all cellular devices.
It's a usability problem. Can you think of anything easier? I can't.
I find usernames a lot easier to communicate than phone numbers, and they are cheaper to move to another phone provider. And don't require me to share my phone number, which is an extremely high priority channel, with everybody I might want to send a message to.
And if it is face2face, scanning a barcode like e.g. Threema supports is even quicker.