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You can change your number

signal.org

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Re: You can change your number

#21

Post by aspenmayer »

saurik wrote: post #12
SecurityLagoon wrote: post #6

Can people please choose an appropriate title when posting. "You can change your number" makes sense in the context of signal.org but makes little sense on the front page of HN. The RSS feed doesn't even include the domain for context.

This website has an extremely awkward policy about titles that makes it so if you don't use the original title people get angry. The policy though just doesn't make sense, sadly, as the concept of titles is audience-specific (and even movies or books, which might feel more organized, sometimes have different audiences in different markets). FWIW, I did connect it together as I saw "(signal.org)" and that was sufficie…

No post body was provided.

Re: You can change your number

#22

Post by tptacek »

viccuad wrote: post #9
Vinnl wrote: post #2

> We built Change Number using the foundation of more exciting features to come. Surely this is referring to the ability to use a non-phone number ID, which they've hinted at before [1]. Looking forward to that, only because I know many others are! [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/kt91qk/comment/...

Oh, I'm surprised, after a decade stating that phone numbers were great for ID.

They're great compared to the alternative of simply storing a plaintext register of every pair of communicating parties on the server, which is how other messengers work. What's "good" about phone numbers is that they're tied clientside to a "buddy list" that everyone already keeps --- their contact list. They don't want phone numbers on the merits of phone numbers.

Re: You can change your number

#23

Post by colordrops »

usea wrote: post #8

How can I use this without a phone or phone number at all? If I am concerned about privacy, why would I give them that access and information when it's not necessary for the service? Surely they are only trying to gather information on their users. Whether it's being sold, breached, or used for ad targeting, I am not interested. It comes across as a scam. I cannot take seriously any claims made by the company or its…

This is for proctecting your data from other end users. Signal still needs your number to provide to three letter agencies.

Re: You can change your number

#24

Post by FridayoLeary »

saurik wrote: post #12
SecurityLagoon wrote: post #6

Can people please choose an appropriate title when posting. "You can change your number" makes sense in the context of signal.org but makes little sense on the front page of HN. The RSS feed doesn't even include the domain for context.

This website has an extremely awkward policy about titles that makes it so if you don't use the original title people get angry. The policy though just doesn't make sense, sadly, as the concept of titles is audience-specific (and even movies or books, which might feel more organized, sometimes have different audiences in different markets). FWIW, I did connect it together as I saw "(signal.org)" and that was sufficie…

If the original title is too vague, hyperbolic or long, i will use a better title from another website. But normally it's just confusing for people who expect one headline, to find a different one. Generally company blog headlines fall into the category of "extremely vague" and need improving.

Re: You can change your number

#25

Post by jessriedel »

stavros wrote: post #17
mlissner wrote: post #15

This is fine, but signal still doesn't tell you when the person you're sending to has uninstalled signal. Instead, your messages go into ether and you think the person is ignoring you. It blows my mind they haven't prioritized this. https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/11164

This shows a single check mark, no? Ie it tells you that the user hasn't received the message.

Yea, it seems like this is the most information they could give you without violating the addressee's privacy by revealing whether they have uninstalled the app. I suppose it could be worth it if, when the message remains undelivered for a while, Signal added an explicit note to that effect so the sender doesn't misunderstand.

Re: You can change your number

#26

Post by shishy »

usea wrote: post #8

How can I use this without a phone or phone number at all? If I am concerned about privacy, why would I give them that access and information when it's not necessary for the service? Surely they are only trying to gather information on their users. Whether it's being sold, breached, or used for ad targeting, I am not interested. It comes across as a scam. I cannot take seriously any claims made by the company or its…

I don't think it's so nefarious... phone numbers were just the easiest way for them to create a portable social graph without requiring users to re-discover if anything changed. Plus, it looks like this move is going to push them in a direction where phone numbers won't be required (as they've indicated previously is in the works).

Re: You can change your number

#27

Post by its_bbq »

usea wrote: post #8

How can I use this without a phone or phone number at all? If I am concerned about privacy, why would I give them that access and information when it's not necessary for the service? Surely they are only trying to gather information on their users. Whether it's being sold, breached, or used for ad targeting, I am not interested. It comes across as a scam. I cannot take seriously any claims made by the company or its…

Signal is about as reputable as you can get for e2e encrypted chat

Re: You can change your number

#28

Post by root_axis »

viccuad wrote: post #9
Vinnl wrote: post #2

> We built Change Number using the foundation of more exciting features to come. Surely this is referring to the ability to use a non-phone number ID, which they've hinted at before [1]. Looking forward to that, only because I know many others are! [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/kt91qk/comment/...

Oh, I'm surprised, after a decade stating that phone numbers were great for ID.

Signal was built as an alternative to SMS so that design makes sense with that goal in mind.

Re: You can change your number

#29

Post by staticassertion »

SecurityLagoon wrote: post #6

Can people please choose an appropriate title when posting. "You can change your number" makes sense in the context of signal.org but makes little sense on the front page of HN. The RSS feed doesn't even include the domain for context.

signal.org is displayed right next to the title.

Re: You can change your number

#30

Post by bmarquez »

Waterluvian wrote: post #19
stavros wrote: post #16

This is a great feature, well done for adding it! However, I'm a bit puzzled as to why seemingly easy bug fixes aren't addressed. There's a longstanding issue with Signal not recognizing that the phone is in a landscape orientation when taking photos, so they're rotated by 90 degrees. I opened an issue[1] and it got closed with a related-but-not-exact workaround. This impacts everyone who takes photos on Android with…

Signal is eating up 11GB of my iOS space. There is no way to clear it without completely uninstalling and reinstalling. And then the problem just resets and grows again. It’s a ridiculously consequential bug and they don’t seem motivated to even comment. Pretty sad.

Signal also has other issues on iOS, like the lack of message backup/restore which exists on the Android version.

Every time I upgrade my phone I have to reformat & disable iCloud lock and hand in my device before I get a new one. So Signal's workaround of having two phones side-by-side to transfer is a non-starter. (Also useless if you happen to physically lose your old phone.)

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