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Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

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Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#271

Post by usrusr »

dymk wrote: post #68
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?")

I dunno, all my friends use at least a handful of messaging apps (iMessage, FB messenger, Discord, Telegram, SMS). Sure people grumble about a new messaging app but the younger generation seems to not have an issue adopting new things.

And while older generations might be less willing to use a high number of apps side by side, having one kind of message in one app and the other kind of message in the other app is still much less confusing to them than dealing with the subtleties of multiprotocol if everything is forced through the single one-size-fits-all interface of a messenger that tries to do SMS on the side.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#272

Post by xeromal »

adfm wrote: post #260
Waterluvian wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another reason for iOS users to avoid Signal: It eats up Gigabytes of storage space, refuses to ever clear it, and the devs are rather resistant to accepting that it's even a problem at all: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/4916

Since there’s no server storing media, consider saving the stuff you want and dumping all the old photos and video you don’t. It’s a more secure communication tool, not an archive.

People usually want both and that's what causes most people to ignore good tools.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#273

Post by dodgerdan »

Xelynega wrote: post #191
dodgerdan wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

“Killing Signal”? They don’t publish their user numbers, but they were having outages due to massive user growth a few years ago.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#274

Post by dodgerdan »

Georgelemental wrote: post #251
dodgerdan wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realise Telegram isn’t secure (non-e2ee), is Russian owned and is based in the Middle East. Enjoy whatever privacy that provides.

Based in the Middle East instead of Russia, because the founders specifically care about avoiding Russian government censorship

And they picked a country known for its poor rule of law, constitutional protections and respect for privacy.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#275

Post by zingplex »

theLastOfCats wrote: post #180
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?")

Why three tho? Use one – Telegram.

I don't think Telegram should really be seen as an alternative to Signal. It doesn't use E2E encryption by default.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#276

Post by daedalus_j »

adfm wrote: post #260
Waterluvian wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another reason for iOS users to avoid Signal: It eats up Gigabytes of storage space, refuses to ever clear it, and the devs are rather resistant to accepting that it's even a problem at all: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/4916

Since there’s no server storing media, consider saving the stuff you want and dumping all the old photos and video you don’t. It’s a more secure communication tool, not an archive.

I'd take a decent "export my chats" option. I have chat history that goes back years that it's often convenient to be able to search. I'd love to be able to move it off the device, but instead the Signal backup just keeps getting larger and larger.

To be clear, Signal allows you to backup and restore back into Signal on android, which is great. What I meant is that it would be helpful to be able to export that content out of signal and keep an accessible searchable archive off of the device.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#277

Post by garciansmith »

dheera wrote: post #194
garciansmith wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sc…

> gas company, electric company, Especially when there are issues that's how mine send updates. To say nothing about companies that require 2FA through text!

> bank I can't use VOIP numbers with them, not sure about Twilio.

> my elderly neighbor who can barely use a phone and I taught how to text You make the assumption that they even have a computer: they do not. They do normally just knock on my door, but they want to send and receive pictures to their family and other people who do not live close by.

> every restaurant I order online from I want to know when my order is ready.

> the plumber I just texted literally an hour ago He asked for a picture of the leak and to text it to him. He's reliable and has done good work before, I'm not going to switch just because he doesn't use email.

My point in all of this is that in the U.S. SMS is ubiquitous. As much as I would love to leave it behind, there are just so many situations where you need SMS.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#278

Post by cassonmars »

xeromal wrote: post #272
adfm wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since there’s no server storing media, consider saving the stuff you want and dumping all the old photos and video you don’t. It’s a more secure communication tool, not an archive.

People usually want both and that's what causes most people to ignore good tools.

Doing so comes at a cost to privacy — by signal having a hosting server, even if the contents are E2EE, retrieving and storing these contents creates a metadata trail. I actually go over these drawbacks and tradeoffs in a recent blog post: https://cassieheart.substack.com/p/notes-on-e2ee

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#279

Post by usrusr »

bxparks wrote: post #236
_jsnk wrote: post #34

I'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.

If I want to message someone I open the contact and click on one of the messengers that are listed for the phone number. Why would I leave the memorizing to my brain?
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