Signal is experiencing technical difficulties • Hacker News Board

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#11

Post by YeBanKo » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:12 AM UTC

LordAtlas wrote: post #4

It's really annoying that they didn't even acknowledge the problem officially. Till about 15 minutes ago, their status page said everything was fine. Their Twitter account still doesn't mention any technical problems. But the service has been having issues for at least 3 hours. [1] Most people I know that started using Signal a few months ago are now back to using Whatsapp. Privacy is a nice feature to advertise, but…

They also did not acknowledge the previous big outage, that happen at the beginning of the year. Their blog does not mention what steps are being taken to mitigate scalability issues. While the protocol and their effort to make everything secure is amazing, lack of transparency into reliability is concerning and a barrier to adoption.

However, I don’t think the UX is bad, so far it has been sufficient for me.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#12

Post by artificialLimbs » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:14 AM UTC

YeBanKo wrote: post #2

I hope they will focus on backend stability, as it seems to be their biggest issue yet, not the lack of built in payment method.

Don't have anything substantive to add, but this is a Big Deal. I donate every month and would definitely subscribe if they offered.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#13

Post by nothroughroad » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:14 AM UTC

LordAtlas wrote: post #4

It's really annoying that they didn't even acknowledge the problem officially. Till about 15 minutes ago, their status page said everything was fine. Their Twitter account still doesn't mention any technical problems. But the service has been having issues for at least 3 hours. [1] Most people I know that started using Signal a few months ago are now back to using Whatsapp. Privacy is a nice feature to advertise, but…

who gives a crap about most people you know?

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#14

Post by dr1337 » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:17 AM UTC

toastercat wrote: post #5

What's a good alternative to Signal on Android for casual messaging? I don't think Element is a good fit since it's not easy to ask a friend or family member to sign up for Element whereas it's simple to install Signal.

Really? I haven't found it an issue to get friends or family to sign up for Element. In fact it's even better because you don't need to use your mobile number for that.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#15

Post by MihaiSandor » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:17 AM UTC

LordAtlas wrote: post #4

It's really annoying that they didn't even acknowledge the problem officially. Till about 15 minutes ago, their status page said everything was fine. Their Twitter account still doesn't mention any technical problems. But the service has been having issues for at least 3 hours. [1] Most people I know that started using Signal a few months ago are now back to using Whatsapp. Privacy is a nice feature to advertise, but…

And also it is buggy when running on iOS devices. (crash app, media files not working)

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#16

Post by YeBanKo » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:18 AM UTC

na85 wrote: post #8

toastercat wrote: post #5

What's a good alternative to Signal on Android for casual messaging? I don't think Element is a good fit since it's not easy to ask a friend or family member to sign up for Element whereas it's simple to install Signal.

SMS, WhatsApp, if you don't care about security and/or privacy. Perhaps Telegram but I recall reading some commentary on their crypto that made me hesitant. Conversations is a good XMPP messenger, and it supports crypto extensions, OMEMO, etc.

Telegram supports E2EE only of you specifically switch to secret chats and I believe it is only supported in pm, not in groups.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#17

Post by botto » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:18 AM UTC

kome wrote: post #6

toastercat wrote: post #5

What's a good alternative to Signal on Android for casual messaging? I don't think Element is a good fit since it's not easy to ask a friend or family member to sign up for Element whereas it's simple to install Signal.

Telegram?

Sorry, no. Although Telegrams has encryption it's by default Client-Server, you have to explicitly start a secret chat with individual people. Additionally group chats are not encrypted except between client and server.

I'm not sure of a good alternative as simple as Signal

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#18

Post by crakenzak » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:20 AM UTC

toastercat wrote: post #5

What's a good alternative to Signal on Android for casual messaging? I don't think Element is a good fit since it's not easy to ask a friend or family member to sign up for Element whereas it's simple to install Signal.

Telegram is great!

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#19

Post by NikolaNovak » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:22 AM UTC

toastercat wrote: post #5

What's a good alternative to Signal on Android for casual messaging? I don't think Element is a good fit since it's not easy to ask a friend or family member to sign up for Element whereas it's simple to install Signal.

Casual Messaging? Family?

Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, Google Chat, and above all SMS / iMessage. Whatsapp by all accounts is the most popular (as much as I personally detest it).

I know I know, not HN-fare exactly, but they're easy, popular, and work. That's all that most of our's social network actually cares about. There's a lot of discussion in this thread about detailed encryption/security policy, but while I am a privacy nut, none of my non-IT friends/family could possibly care less... And they're not wrong. This convoluted encryption which severely limits multi device usability Andb frequently has louse ui is out of proportion with other comms methods such as email also used. While I may stand up for principles of privacy, my family isn't wrong asking why should their exchange of recipes or birthdays wishes be any harder than necessary.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#20

Post by quaintdev » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:23 AM UTC

toastercat wrote: post #5

What's a good alternative to Signal on Android for casual messaging? I don't think Element is a good fit since it's not easy to ask a friend or family member to sign up for Element whereas it's simple to install Signal.

Matrix is the best alternative. I have been onboarding one friend/family member at a time. And it's slow ride but the advantage is they don't have to sign up to anything else ever again.