What dicks. I'm not looking forward to playing tech support for all the non-technical people I convinced to use Signal. Thanks for confirming everyone's suspicions about my weird-nerd chat client.
Exactly my reaction, made me feel sick
Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
231–240 of 649 posts
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
Last commit was a year ago. Do you know if it is still being developed?
I'm not sure, but I haven't had any issues or want any more features than it already has so it's not an problem for me, but might be for some.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#233I'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…
This. I've switched to iOS recently and I hate that I need two apps now. Already longing to go back to Android.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#234Earlier 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.
> If the recipient chooses to not have SIgnal installed any longer, then your messages go into a black hole.
For two weeks, messages will be shown as sent but not delivered, and after two weeks Signal will not let you send messages to that number until it reconnects to the Signal servers.
For comparison, Apple automatically sends all SMS messages via iMessage opportunistically, and if the user then switches to another phone, all SMS messages from iOS users will be silently discarded in perpetuity. This is a big problem because the recipient has no idea that they're missing messages, and also if they no longer have access to an iPhone, there's no way for them to deregister their phone number from iMessage.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#235I think this will only affect US users, because nobody uses SMS outside the US. And switching between apps is the expected thing to do when trying to push people to another platform, I have telegram, signal, whatsapp and Element on my phone, this is why the new digital markets act is going to be revolutionary, especially with bridge friendly platforms like matrix.org.
I have never been to the US but lived in multiple countries and they all used SMS. May I ask where you live that doesnt use SMS?
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#236I'm very upset by this decision. I've been using Signal as my SMS app for a very long time. Messages that I would have sent via SMS currently will automatically get sent via Signal if the person I'm sending to has started using Signal without my knowledge. This has happened in several instances where I was pleasantly surprised to see a friend had started using Signal. Now that I'm forced into a separate SMS app, this…
If I understand this, if I use SMS, I can send to everyone. If I use Signal, I can send to Signal users only. But I don't remember who's on Signal, and who's not. So I guess I will stop using Signal.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#237Earlier 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.
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Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#238I 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.
I feel like this change will increase the amount of SMS users if anything
Why?
I tell everyone I don't use SMS. The only ways to message me are e-mail, Signal, WeChat, FB, and Instagram.
E-mail is the best "generic" way to reach me that isn't tied to a company's platform, and a much, much better UX than SMS in almost every way, especially when travelling internationally with multiple devices.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#239I'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 Chomp SMS a long time and it's still being updated.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#240You can send feedback to support@signal.org. I don't know if it will do any good, but I sent them my respectful two cents.