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You can change your number

signal.org

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261–270 of 410 posts

Re: You can change your number

#261

Post by pseudalopex »

bmarquez wrote: post #30
Waterluvian wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

They plan to remove backup from Android FYI.

Re: You can change your number

#262

Post by toastercup »

athrun wrote: post #231
itake wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it advertise your username? If I don't have the name of the contact, will Signal share my username or does it just say "this number in your list has joined signal, and here is their profile?"

My understanding is that your profile username is made visible if: - the person is in your own contact list - you create a conversation with them - you accept a conversation from them see: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007459591

Nice. Sounds like the same rules apply to profile pictures as well. That feels like a step in the right direction, but it still means that by having family/coworkers/college buddies/etc in your contacts, they can see your profile picture and username. I know this can be a sticking point for some. It would be great if Signal introduced finer-grained privacy controls so it could appeal to an even wider audience.

Re: You can change your number

#263

Post by crossroadsguy »

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/...

I hope they don’t implement it broken like Telegram’s.

If a person has your number in the contacts then your username and phone number are automatically merged together even if you were conversing to that person using your username from your perspective. That’s such a safety nightmare.

Re: You can change your number

#264

Post by pseudalopex »

Yeroc wrote: post #247
haffenloher wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not proxy through your phone. After the initial setup, you can switch off your phone and the desktop client will work just fine.

Except (unless something has changed very recently) you can't backup/restore your chat history to a new desktop client... Security over general usability.

You can back up. Not restore though. The database key is in the config file.

How does it help security?

Re: You can change your number

#265

Post by rcarback »

godelski wrote: post #207
rcarback wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First come first serve right now. Identity is based on keys generated on device and the usernames are based on a network service which I expect we will decentralize (i.e., set up your own like e-mail).

I also don't see usernames as really being that anonymous. Like even if I make a username there that's "notgodelski" if I share that username here on HN then I haven't done anything to keep myself anonymous. All it does is trades one PII for another (phone number for username). I'm also curious about scaling and collisions. Not only do you have a birthday problem with normal usernames, but what about special classes?…

Agreed that usernames aren't exactly anonymous, which is why the platform doesn't require one to use and you can share your QR Code directly instead. I think the mobile apps might force registration with user discovery (this is an active argument i've been having...) but it's not designed to be required.

It's not fully baked, but my expectation is that it will work similarly to how the .eth, namecoin, and other systems work, where you'll be able to register a user discovery service on a blockchain which the clients will recognize and use for searching. In this model, NYT registers "nyt.xx" and "rcarback" pops up in the interface as "rcarback@nyt.xx". As it stands, we've rolled out a basic version with a single central user discovery point for now.

Re: You can change your number

#266

Post by legalcorrection »

It's been promised for years, but you still can't use a second phone as a linked/secondary device. As a result, it is literally impossible to have the same signal account on two iPhones. Since they already support using an iPad as a linked device, this would require little more than changing a flag and a recompilation. Maybe they have their reasons, but all they keep saying is 'soon'.

Re: You can change your number

#267

Post by pseudalopex »

byhemechi wrote: post #258
scotty79 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They must store something to route messages. Graph of random numbers is even better than the graph of actual numbers. They just wanted to piggyback on already existing network of people contacts. Standard startup "growth hack".

Signal originally send messages via SMS . The hosted version using phone numbers is a carryover from that transition.

They said it was to piggy back on people's contacts too.

Re: You can change your number

#268

Post by crossroadsguy »

odjebioff wrote: post #219
scotty79 wrote: post #67

Why would supposedly secure communicator use actual phone number as identifier is beyond me. And everybody does that, either phone number or email. The only software I could find for anonymous communication was old Polish communicator http://gg.pl which uses arbitrary numbers as identifiers I understand that startups are scared that they won't be able to build up userbase from scratch but come on! Discord and Slack d…

Try Threema then, they don’t require email nor phone

One fundamental problem with messaging apps is that you need other people you want to connect to to be using that app.

Decentralisation and all that - again, other people.

Re: You can change your number

#269

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

legalcorrection wrote: post #266

It's been promised for years, but you still can't use a second phone as a linked/secondary device. As a result, it is literally impossible to have the same signal account on two iPhones. Since they already support using an iPad as a linked device, this would require little more than changing a flag and a recompilation. Maybe they have their reasons, but all they keep saying is 'soon'.

> but you still can't use a second phone as a linked/secondary device. As a result, it is literally impossible to have the same signal account on two iPhones.

I use my google voice number on multiple phones.

Re: You can change your number

#270

Post by lkxijlewlf »

legalcorrection wrote: post #266

It's been promised for years, but you still can't use a second phone as a linked/secondary device. As a result, it is literally impossible to have the same signal account on two iPhones. Since they already support using an iPad as a linked device, this would require little more than changing a flag and a recompilation. Maybe they have their reasons, but all they keep saying is 'soon'.

This is the feature I want most. I have my EDC and then I have a "if I drop it in the ocean, oops" phone.
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