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Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

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Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#191

Post by Xelynega »

dodgerdan wrote: post #102
gerty wrote: post #50

I've been a user for nearly 10 years and still only a few people in my circles uses Signal. If they go through with this, Signal is as good as dead.

Well for what it’s worth it sounds like you weren’t really using Signal for secure messaging anyway… so not much of a loss.

This kind of thinking is exactly what's killing signal. Why would you want to gatekeep the security of others instead of making t as accessible as possible?

To me this feels like signal not understanding that their intended userbase and their actual userbase are very different, as I can't imagine the number of people that use signal solely for it's e2ee is comparable to the number of people that use it as their sms app.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#192

Post by 0xbadc0de5 »

Terrible decision. You don't improve the average person's security posture by increasing the barrier-to-entry of encrypted messaging - and removing SMS support is doing exactly that. Signal -is- was great BECAUSE it made the transition from SMS to Signal so seamless.

Aside: Funny how quickly the wheels fall off as soon as Moxie leaves. (https://signal.org/blog/new-year-new-ceo/)

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#193

Post by dodgerdan »

lucideer wrote: post #153

This is bizarre. If this were an in-depth announcement with a long and well-structured technical justification attached, I could understand. Though I suspect I'd likely disagree with the decision, I could probably accept it as a simple different of opinion if the arguments were evidently well-thought-through and considered. This blog-post is so lightweight. There's no technical analysis. There's barely any justificat…

Improving UI/UX around to clarify the SMS function is insecure is almost impossible. Google did research around SSL cert warnings a few years back, their conclusion was that people don’t read and just dismiss warnings, no mater what UI was. A frightening percentage of people also think the security padlock icon is actually a handbag.

Most people simply lack the technical basis to understand the security implications of sms. And for Signal to be a secure messaging system by default SMS needs to be removed.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#194

Post by dheera »

garciansmith wrote: post #57
dheera wrote: post #27

I support this decision, I don't use SMS and I'm in support of everything that kills SMS. Next step: Please stop using phone numbers as a user ID. I have lots of throwaway phone numbers, but many people don't want to leak their phone number to every single person they want to have an encrypted conversation with.

Yeah, I'll just tell the gas company, electric company, internet provider, my bank, my elderly neighbor who can barely use a phone and I taught how to text, every restaurant I order online from, the plumber I just texted literally an hour ago due to a pipe leaking to just... not use SMS. I'm sure they'll listen. I assume you live in a place where SMS isn't necessary? In the U.S. it is.

> gas company, electric company,

Mine don't need SMS

> internet provider,

Also doesn't need SMS for me

> my bank,

F them, I use a throwaway Twilio number for this

> my elderly neighbor who can barely use a phone and I taught how to text,

I tell them to either e-mail me or stick a handwritten note on my door. E-mail is WAY easier to use for elderly people in my experience. You get nice big keyboards, big fonts, big screens, and it works on any device you own, not just one. But if they disagree they can still handwrite a note to me

> every restaurant I order online from,

I use a fake number for these. They don't need my number any more than I need their wait staff's phone numbers. Never been a problem. I just go pick up and say my name, no SMS bullshit.

> the plumber I just texted literally an hour ago

I don't text plumbers, I e-mail or call them

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#195

Post by Macha »

matsemann wrote: post #184
eatwater123 wrote: post #10

This is an awful decision. I've converted some friends and family to Signal over the past years (it took a while) and it is now their default messaging app on their phones. This is going to confuse them and is going to make it difficult for me to keep convincing them that Signal is the route to use. ("Why do I need 3 apps (Android Messages, Signal, Whatsapp) to talk to people?")

Is this outcry US specific? Don't think I've sent a single SMS the last decade here in EU.

Do you use Signal in the EU? Seems to be either WhatsApp or Telegram depending on how west or east you are.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#196

Post by roer »

wslack wrote: post #182
CommitSyn wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is an idiotic decision that makes me question the decisions being made as a whole by Signal. Does anyone have recommendations for a good default SMS app on Android?

The provide a fairly clear rationale beyond the ideological concern: users don't know/see who is on SMS and who isn't, and are being hit with high fees, and they are concerned that users may believe they have privacy when they do not. These are reasonable issues and concerns, so I don't follow why you would question all of the other decisions they make.

There are surely ways around this that don't limit the functionality of the application

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#197

Post by busymom0 »

wslack wrote: post #182
CommitSyn wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is an idiotic decision that makes me question the decisions being made as a whole by Signal. Does anyone have recommendations for a good default SMS app on Android?

The provide a fairly clear rationale beyond the ideological concern: users don't know/see who is on SMS and who isn't, and are being hit with high fees, and they are concerned that users may believe they have privacy when they do not. These are reasonable issues and concerns, so I don't follow why you would question all of the other decisions they make.

Couldn’t they just do something like have the sms messages in a different color than the rest? Similar to how iOS used blue for iMessage and green for texts? Signal could use an annoying red color for sms to make it even more clear.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#198

Post by GeekyBear »

tadfisher wrote: post #154
mynameisvlad wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They say “opportunistic” as in similar to how iMessage works. If you’re both on the platform, it’s encrypted but you still can communicate with everyone else from one app. That’s a major boost for those that might not particularly care about encryption to look for specific messaging apps, while still helping by building out the network slowly over time.

The downside is that they will opportunistically send your messages via Signal. If the recipient chooses to not have SIgnal installed any longer, then your messages go into a black hole. This became much more of a problem for me after they rolled out their shitcoin; suddenly my techie friends were just not responding to messages, and Signal as my main SMS app was not falling back to SMS for these folks.

> The downside is that they will opportunistically send your messages via Signal. If the recipient chooses to not have SIgnal installed any longer, then your messages go into a black hole.

The user cannot just log out of Signal and have the app on other people's devices automatically fall back on SMS the way it works with iMessage?

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#199

Post by m4lvin »

NoGravitas wrote: post #88
johntrain wrote: post #9

Can anyone recommend a good SMS Android app?

Further — can anyone recommend a good Open Source SMS Android app? The only ones I can find are AOSP Messaging and Simple SMS Messenger, both of which are "Okay".

QKSMS is so good I almost forgot that I am using it.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.moez.QKSMS/

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#200

Post by nazgulsenpai »

CommitSyn wrote: post #156
daedalus_j wrote: post #149

I've been using Signal for a long time. I have repeatedly been unable to convince iOS users to use Signal because "I don't want another app". Android users have been much more willing to give it a shot. As an android user myself, I much prefer having SMS built in because I use the search feature often to look back through all my SMS/Signal chats. I also regularly forward an SMS message to a Signal user, or vice versa…

Yes, this is an idiotic decision that makes me question the decisions being made as a whole by Signal. Does anyone have recommendations for a good default SMS app on Android?

I've been using QKSMS on Android 12 and haven't had any problems in about a year of use. I think its on Google Play as well.

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.moez.QKSMS

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