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Stories Are Coming to Signal

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Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#91

Post by ngrilly »

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 don’t recommend Signal either due to the lack of encrypted backup/restore. I don’t understand the prioritization of other features over that one.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#92

Post by abnercoimbre »

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…

My conference [0] spins up a brand new Matrix server each event. It's the equivalent of having hallway conversations that shouldn't be tracked.

Not everything needs to live on forever.

[0] https://handmade-seattle.com

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#93

Post by Sunspark »

Nextgrid wrote: post #30
tcfhgj wrote: post #8

Seems like Stories will come to Matrix as well - through FluffyChat and Minestrix! https://youtu.be/tLlSGqzgzhg?t=1045

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

Boss, let's edit our images using GIMP.

No, it's not one of the banned words in the HR guide.. I mean yes it is, but that's not what it means.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#94

Post by fragmede »

jimkleiber wrote: post #51
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.

WhatsApp has had stories for years, just called statuses. Most of my American friends don't use it or know they're there, but my East African friends use them all the time. Frankly, most of my US friends aren't even on WhatsApp or Telegram or Signal. I don't know where they are :-D Maybe iMessage, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook. How do you define the difference between a messaging app and social media…

It's the blurring of lines that some users are objecting to. Instagram is a perfect example where yes, important communication happens via Instagram messages, but the problem is that once the app is open, it's exceedingly easy to accidentally spend minutes/hours listlessly scrolling. In order to avoid listlessly scrolling, users will uninstall the app or set time limits on it, or other techniques to avoid it sucking up so much time. Compare this to a 'plain' messaging app without a broadcast stories feature - there isn't the same distraction factor and for those that abhor the algorithmic-feed and distraction factor, it's a huge turn-off to add that feature.

Go into Instagram/Twitter/TikTok/Snapchat/Facebook and try and turn off the stories/feed. You can't, that's the main engagement loop for the app!

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#95

Post by _8j50 »

Ffs! Just have cross platform backup/restore and migration, accounts not tied to phones and multi-device accounts already! I have heard others complain about this for years now.

I can code but I don't code for a living, these things seem like they would take at most two weeks dev time, is there a complexity I am missing here? Or do they just not care? I have all but abandoned secure mobile messanging at this point. They either die from lack of adoption or live long enough to become the villain.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#96

Post by fragmede »

jimkleiber wrote: post #46
noah_buddy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can post stories in WhatsApp? TIL, I had no idea. What other apps are common among you and your peers?

Yup, called Statuses. In iOS, it's the bottom left corner of the menu, click that and you can add a story near the top next to My Story. Probably similar UI for Android. > What other apps are common among you and your peers? Ironically, I'm in the US but used to live in East Africa and have lots of friends out there. So I'm not sure what's too popular out there nowadays besides WhatsApp and TikTok. Some apps probably…

I'd be extremely curious to hear about any the money management apps (even if you're not sure which one is dominant, or the information out of date). I'm guessing the main apps in the US (Venmo and Paypal) don't even operate in East Africa.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#97

Post by xanaxagoras »

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…

> Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine?

I find text based instant messaging to be shallow and vapid and I have very little interest in them. Texting is best used (for me at least) to coordinate real life plans (I'll be in front of X at Y o'clock) or quick task-oriented notes (Hey babe, can you grab some sliced turkey if you're still at the store). If you want to actually talk to me, call me or let's meet in person.

This attachment to one's messaging archive is IMO a symptom of data hoarding. 99.9% of text conversations won't be interesting in the future because they weren't interesting when they were happening.

That said I do like enjoy the feature where all of the photos from a given conversation are easily accessible.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#98

Post by reducesuffering »

metabagel wrote: post #88
brimnes wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can check out the Wikipedia page [1]. Apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook already have the stories feature. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stories_(social_media)

OK, I still don’t understand what a story is. Also, get off my lawn!

It’s a short-lived (usually 1 day), short length video or photo on your account that any of your connections can view as part of a carousel of other stories. You can post yours and/or view your connections’ stories in sequence.

I.e. You go into the app. 10/100 friends have posted stories. You watch them one after another (without needing to go to each friends account) to see what they were up to for the day.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#99

Post by golemotron »

As much as people complain about patents, maybe patenting things like stories and stickers in social media / messaging would've kept them from being playbook items that we see in the journey of every single online product. It's tedious and rather lazy compared to developing new ideas.

Re: Stories Are Coming to Signal

#100

Post by evilos »

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…

I'm sorry, since when is "location sharing" a "basic feature" of a messaging application? Can't you just send them a maps link to your location? Or your GPS coordinates?
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