Personally I never used Signal to send SMS and the possibility to fat finger the mode and send SMS instead was always a downside to me.
Same here. I would not like for SMS to be mixed with my secure messages. I see this as a feature.
Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
411–420 of 649 posts
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#412I am not so much upset about the decision to remove SMS support, but about the reasons they give. It smells like a really lame excuse.
But whatever. I only send and receive SMS very rarely these days, so I installed Silence on my phone. It's still annoying, though. Having one app for SMS and encrypted messaging was very convenient.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#413I'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…
> I have repeatedly been unable to convince iOS users to use Signal because "I don't want another app". Here's how I've convinced my iPhone friends. I tell them if they actually want to send pictures and videos to me that aren't potato quality they can either switch to an Android, email me, or use Signal. At this point Signal is more like a cross platform iMessage. This tends to move people over because Apple's walle…
Signal is another walled garden, where you have no say in their decisions and simply must obey or leave. Consider Matrix if you want to have the freedom.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#414Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being rude to people by dismissing feature requests as invalid isn't helpful.
Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude. But I am confused at what they want. We have continued the discussion and the picture is clearer to me. Though I'm not sure exactly how Signal can help with it. It still appears to me that the user wants both reduced storage but to maintain search history, which are at odds with one another. Unless they expect Signal to store their history, which those expectations should be shot dow…
How can you be confused?
'I'd take a decent "export my chats" option' is a very simple statement. There is no way within Signal to just export a whole conversation to a file.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#415I'm surprised at how much backlash there is to this. I've had Signal since shortly after it renamed itself from TextSecure to Signal, and I never bothered using it as the default SMS/Messaging app, because back then it was a bad SMS app. It felt like it paled in comparison to what the default Android Messages app could do. I didn't want to get the false impression, either, that my chats were encrypted when they reall…
Same here. I'm really surprised by the reactions, but I guess it's a locality thing.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#416This 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…
What kind of technical analysis would you be looking for? Reading the post, it seems like their analysis came down to (1) fundamental values, i.e. not including insecure communications within an app when they've built their brand around being secure, and (2) UX confusion resulting in additional SMS costs and/or inadvertent data leakage. The former is a straightforward question of product strategy. Are you looking for e.g. some numbers from their UX research? This doesn't seem to ultimately be a decision about underlying technology.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#417> We have now reached the point where SMS support no longer makes sense. What a laughable, out of touch suggestion. Did anyone at Signal actually ask the community what they thought about removing SMS support? Seriously, this decision is going to kill Signal app. It will halt the majority of growth as evangelists such as myself can no longer recommend it with a straight face. Signal is supposed to enhance the messagi…
Maybe their target market us not US that hasn't moved away from sms. I don't know the numbers but this could be an argument for themselves.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#418Earlier quoted context omitted.
So when the server has the key, how can you say it's encrypted? I mean in context of signal we don't just talk about some form of transport encryption but e2e
It's various levels of encryption that are acceptable depending on your risk level. I'm mainly concerned about SMS spoofing and mass surveillance. iMessage protects against that. The only way the government can read your messages is by serving Apple with a warrant to obtain your iCloud backup. If I had a lower risk tolerance, I would disable iCloud backups to improve my security.
I mean you followed Snowden right?
I would argue that if you are relevant enough apple and sms are both equally easy to get for them.
If we talk here about signal, I don't think the alternative should be iMessage but telegram etc.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#419Do people still use SMS?
I haven't for many years, for sending (except for one time I wanted to test a modem driver SMS function).
I regularly use Signal, Telegram and Google chat and used to use whatsapp until it was banned by my employer but the only time I ever use SMS is to receive automatic authorisation SMSs
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#420Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. I've switched to iOS recently and I hate that I need two apps now. Already longing to go back to Android.
Just use iMessage. It's not as secure as Signal since the server has the keys, but it's the easiest way to ensure that the majority of text messages you send are encrypted. There was just an article that said that 88% of teens have an iPhone. That means that almost all of their communication is encrypted.
fwiw, iMessage is actually E2E encrypted (without Apple storing the key) if you either don't have iCloud backup enabled OR don't enable "Message in the Cloud".