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Stories Are Coming to Signal

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Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#71

Post by bostik »

anthropodie wrote: post #57

So Signal is missing a basic feature like location sharing and they chose to go ahead with implementing Stories. I guess they are focusing more on getting new users than making a great app. The thing is none of these centralized apps will ever get messaging right. Because no matter how good the intentions of the team are sooner or later the higher management or the PM wants to have bigger piece of cake. This in the e…

For a messaging application whose intended target audience includes dissidents, location sharing even as an option sounds dangerous.

Especially given this from your comment: Focus on providing security fixes and minor improvements that improve user experience - when UX includes such irrelevancies such as "avoid getting users vanished and/or killed", the guiding principle should be: no footguns.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#72

Post by ringworld »

newscracker wrote: post #27

The development of Signal, sorry to put it harshly, seems to suffer from a split brained syndrome. On one hand they’ll focus on adding stickers, stories and other trivial features to help appeal to a broader user base, but on the other hand they’ll refuse to implement basic and important features that people need in a chat app, like chat backups (there is no backup option for iOS, only a device to device transfer…so…

Everyone has different UI feature desires so ill put that aside for this comment; flexibility is my key reason for Signal losing favor.

What the Matrix solution gives me:

- chat from multiple devices with history upon login (I read they're working on downloadable exports/backups) from any client;

- zero knowledge webapp logins (e.g. the work laptop on VPN, app.element.io in a Chrome tab) just use your Security Key like MFA;

- trivial and easy bridging with other endpoints (IRC, XMPP, etc.) it's not perfect but it works and I use this daily chatting with friends on other networks;

- choice of many clients whether actual apps or web interfaces (yes, it's early days and rough around the edges but the capability is there and happening) unlike Signal;

- distributed (federation) server designs baked in to avoid single company server lock in (Signal is opposed to this, goes hand in hand with using only their clients);

- less trouble and better client experiences about around the above than XMPP ecosystem. I just get annoyed using the XMPP versions of my bullet points above (and I've really tried, honest)

Is Matrix/Element perfect? no, lots of rough edges being worked on especially with the e2ee keys (my opinion). But I see healthy work, continual improvement and a good future ahead.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#73

Post by [deleted] »

jbreitbart wrote: post #47
newscracker wrote: post #27

The development of Signal, sorry to put it harshly, seems to suffer from a split brained syndrome. On one hand they’ll focus on adding stickers, stories and other trivial features to help appeal to a broader user base, but on the other hand they’ll refuse to implement basic and important features that people need in a chat app, like chat backups (there is no backup option for iOS, only a device to device transfer…so…

I intentionally drop all messages from time to time (typically once I get a new device). Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine? After all, I don’t remember all conversations I had in person as well. I understand that loosing them at an unexpected time can be annoying and a backup is useful, but I personally never had a use for that feature and knowing that it is annoying for someone…

[deleted]

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#74

Post by slickdork »

jbreitbart wrote: post #47
newscracker wrote: post #27

The development of Signal, sorry to put it harshly, seems to suffer from a split brained syndrome. On one hand they’ll focus on adding stickers, stories and other trivial features to help appeal to a broader user base, but on the other hand they’ll refuse to implement basic and important features that people need in a chat app, like chat backups (there is no backup option for iOS, only a device to device transfer…so…

I intentionally drop all messages from time to time (typically once I get a new device). Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine? After all, I don’t remember all conversations I had in person as well. I understand that loosing them at an unexpected time can be annoying and a backup is useful, but I personally never had a use for that feature and knowing that it is annoying for someone…

I set signal to auto delete messages older than 2 weeks. There is zero reason to keep messages of a personal relation longer than that, for me at least. I am prone to nostalgic romanticizing, and not having access to past messages kind of solves that problem.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#75

Post by saurik »

ringworld wrote: post #72
newscracker wrote: post #27

The development of Signal, sorry to put it harshly, seems to suffer from a split brained syndrome. On one hand they’ll focus on adding stickers, stories and other trivial features to help appeal to a broader user base, but on the other hand they’ll refuse to implement basic and important features that people need in a chat app, like chat backups (there is no backup option for iOS, only a device to device transfer…so…

Everyone has different UI feature desires so ill put that aside for this comment; flexibility is my key reason for Signal losing favor. What the Matrix solution gives me: - chat from multiple devices with history upon login (I read they're working on downloadable exports/backups) from any client; - zero knowledge webapp logins (e.g. the work laptop on VPN, app.element.io in a Chrome tab) just use your Security Key li…

And yet Moxie spends a ton of time and effort attempting to convince everyone that working on protocols and federated systems (not just "Web3" and crypto-adjacent stuff, as in his article yesterday, but the entire space: he gave a scathing talk a year or two ago you can find a copy of, though he interestingly hadn't wanted it recorded) are useless and that no one should waste their time building them :(.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#76

Post by blacksmith_tb »

jbreitbart wrote: post #47
newscracker wrote: post #27

The development of Signal, sorry to put it harshly, seems to suffer from a split brained syndrome. On one hand they’ll focus on adding stickers, stories and other trivial features to help appeal to a broader user base, but on the other hand they’ll refuse to implement basic and important features that people need in a chat app, like chat backups (there is no backup option for iOS, only a device to device transfer…so…

I intentionally drop all messages from time to time (typically once I get a new device). Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine? After all, I don’t remember all conversations I had in person as well. I understand that loosing them at an unexpected time can be annoying and a backup is useful, but I personally never had a use for that feature and knowing that it is annoying for someone…

I don't generally need to preserve all my messages forever, but I often do refer to recent ones, say from the last few weeks. I have switched devices a couple of times with Signal only to be stuck thinking "oh crap, did I agree to do X on Th or Fri?" The lack of sync for SMS with their desktop client also makes it basically useless to me, I'm sure that's more secure, but I wouldn't mind being to opt-out, especially on a contact-by-contact basis.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#78

Post by saurik »

jimkleiber wrote: post #35
newscracker wrote: post #27

The development of Signal, sorry to put it harshly, seems to suffer from a split brained syndrome. On one hand they’ll focus on adding stickers, stories and other trivial features to help appeal to a broader user base, but on the other hand they’ll refuse to implement basic and important features that people need in a chat app, like chat backups (there is no backup option for iOS, only a device to device transfer…so…

> On one hand they’ll focus on adding stickers, stories and other trivial features to help appeal to a broader user base > I’ve been trying Element (from Matrix), but its UX is quite poor. I just wish chat apps would copy at least some of the UX of Telegram. I think Signal may be trying to copy some of the UX features that drive people to WhatsApp and Telegram, while maintaining the security. Adding stickers and stor…

Well, one of the big reasons people use services like Snapchat is so they can talk to people they meet in semi-sketchy circumstances without giving out their phone number (which can be used to track or stalk them). Moxie seems to insist that the only way to build a successful service is using telephone numbers, but clearly that is false as the world's largest unencrypted messengers--which should be the enemy, NOT WhatsApp!!!!!!!!--do not use phone numbers as identifiers and allow users to hide them even if they are collected.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#79

Post by iszomer »

nixpulvis wrote: post #42

Whelp, there goes the neighborhood. Honestly, why can't we just make products and services that do one thing and do it well. Leave "stories" to the social media applications.

I didn't think the "Stories" feature would be as controversial as "MobileCoin" integration but apparently it does on HN? This would just push me to disable it (if possible) whenever it is finally rolled out or, inspire me to remove it from my system.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#80

Post by iszomer »

tcfhgj wrote: post #58
Nextgrid wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck getting mainstream acceptance for something that sounds like a furry dating site.

One of the benefits of a standard like Matrix is that the adoption of individual apps is mostly irrelevant. Curious, which app do you refer to?

Probably referring to bridges (eg: irc matrix, telegram matrix, etc)..

https://matrix.org/bridges/

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