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Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
541–550 of 649 posts
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#542Quoted post unavailable.
This is disinformation.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#543Earlier quoted context omitted.
> all my messages is easier than making a context switch per-contact A user already has: - WhatsApp - Telegram - Facebook Messanger - Instagram that has direct messages - the good old email, or better, many of them - Microsoft Teams for company communications - Discord for communications with group of friends - the old SMS (that I didn't even know that in some parts of the world were still used, since I receive them…
Does anyone actually have all those? I certainly don't. I have Signal, Element, Telegram and I even think that's excessive. I can at least manage it, most RL contacts I know would not.
I actually have more than that, yeah
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#544When people complained that adding emojis and animated gifs was adding attack surface, Signal (moxie) said that it was required to build the user base, providing more security to all by providing more chaff via moving more people off SMS. And now they want to kill user engagement by forcing people to use a special app? What a boneheaded move. WhatsApp is going to pick up lots of users.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#545I'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…
The only reason this isn't a dealbreaker for me is because their sms implementation was so buggy and feature-poor that I would never have used it. (The only reason I use signal is to talk to my girlfriend. The only reason we use it is early in our relationship I was going through a phase where I adopted annoying privacy tools. I wanted to abandon it, but after years of using it she's developed positive emotional asso…
> The only reason this isn't a dealbreaker for me is because their sms implementation was so buggy and feature-poor that I would never have used it.
It took me a long time to find this comment. The number of SMS messages I never received was ridiculous. I still use the app all the time, but would never use the integrated SMS messages ever again.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#546This 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 think I've burned a lot of social goodwill switching my family and close friends to signal and have no desire to support them through yet another change.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#547This was one of the core features of using Signal for me. I wish they had implemented RCS and more features for SMS instead of removing it. I'm very disappointed with this feature. As a side note, I'm on the beta, and recently got "Signal Stories". This immensely annoyed me, and had to dig through to remove it (since it wasn't obvious). After the whole crypto thing and these decisions, it might be time to find anothe…
They can't implement RCS, because there's no Android API for it.
Because it's a carrier-owned upsell feature. It's nuts that people even consider a non-Internet protocol that applications can't implement, and users have to get permission to use — from the same carriers that charge for bytes of crappy size-limited MMS messages in the same ballpark as delivery of physical letters.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#548For anyone that's upset about this, don't focus on the SMS vs. Signal messages UI distinction giving as the primary reason.
That's something a simple UX change could improve and does not justify something so radical. There's probably another reason they are doing this, these are my best guesses:
- Feature parity between Android, iOS and Desktop
- Moving towards Signal accounts tied to usernames instead of phone numbers
- Developer resources (unlikely, since this feature has existed since the beginning and probably requires less maintenance than other features, but I'd pay for a subscription if they kept it)
Whatever the real reason is, make them say so, the reason given is extremely flimsy. If they go through with this it will put lives in danger for people like activists, journalists, and anyone crossing a border who depend on their SMS messages being encrypted at rest (despite SMS not being end-to-end encrypted in transit). Using Signal instead of a different SMS app also prevents other apps from reading your SMS messages. Test this out - switch your default SMS away from Signal and sign into an app requiring SMS verification, and that SMS is probably readable by the app without any interaction on your part.
Cue the Apple-ish response of them saying they're listening while not taking any of their users' valid concerns seriously at all. Very disappointed in them.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#549Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That is exactly how iMessage works and the "older generations" seem to have no problem with that.
Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)
#550I'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 got all my friends / family using signal, but everyone else I know and everyone else they know are using SMS or whatever.
They will no doubt stop checking their signal messages from me same as iPhone users often do and I will have to change to insecure messages for all my messaging.
This will break their trust in my recommendation, as much as it will break my trust in signal.
I get the reasoning over this, but I think they fail to realise that interoperability is the most important feature. I will have to stop donating to signal over this change, it will be useless to me...