Signal is experiencing technical difficulties • Hacker News Board

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#21

Post by colordrops » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:25 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…

Not sure I'd say that their reliability "sucks". I've been using it for years and this is only the second major outage I can recall, the other being when an Elon tweet dogpiled millions of users onto the service.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#22

Post by deepsun » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:26 AM UTC

crakenzak wrote: post #18

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!

Telegram is not even in "secure" category, according to Bruce Schneier and other security researchers.

They also meddled with Russian elections this year, blocking opposition bots, but allowing govt bots.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#23

Post by YeBanKo » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:26 AM UTC

artificialLimbs wrote: post #12

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.

Donated three times until they announced partnership with mobilecoin. It signals strange priorities.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#24

Post by tfehring » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:26 AM UTC

dr1337 wrote: post #14

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.

Haven't used Element but that sure doesn't sound better. Signal works as a drop-in replacement for the default SMS app on Android, I'm not gonna tell my mom to stop using my phone number and message `tfehring` from Element instead (if it's even that simple), especially since she'd still need an SMS app for everyone else.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#25

Post by decrypt » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:28 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.

I want to try Briar on the Tailscale network, but couldn't figure out how to change the listening interface so far. Probably requires building Briar manually.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#26

Post by soziawa » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:30 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…

> 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 when both your UX and your reliability suck, it's not a good combo.

Fully agree on the UX but not the reliability. WhatsApp used to be famous in Switzerland for its unreliability. On big European football games and Christmas / New Year WhatsApp was regularely down for 3 hours and more.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#27

Post by Thorentis » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:33 AM UTC

At least they now support Moxiecoin /s

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#28

Post by brylie » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:39 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.

Jitsi Meet. It doesn't require any account or installation. Just create a room and share the link or room name.

https://meet.jit.si

There is also a Jitsi app available for mobile devices, but it is optional.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#29

Post by bogota » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:44 AM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #21

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…

Not sure I'd say that their reliability "sucks". I've been using it for years and this is only the second major outage I can recall, the other being when an Elon tweet dogpiled millions of users onto the service.

I wouldn’t say it sucks but they have had a number of times where it’s clear something is going on for an hour or so but it’s resolved without any notice being issued.

Overall i would say its reliable but not communicating out issues is a really fast way to lose user trust.

Re: Signal is experiencing technical difficulties

#30

Post by MertsA » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 5:45 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're taking the Amazon approach to providing a status page. If you can still load the page, clearly it's not completely down. /s