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Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

whispersystems.org

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Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#71

Question: how and where message is stored when my phone is off and somebody will send me a message? How it is encrypted and then decrypted on my device once turned on?

It will either be on the remote device, or os Signal's servers, depending on how the implementation works. Either way doesn't really matter; the whole point of encryption like this is to prevent third-party access to your communications.

It could be stored at NSA central for all it matters, and you'd still be the only one able to read the message (using the keys on your device).

Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#72

The "screen security" feature on iOS appears to do nothing. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

It stops iOS from saving screenshots of the app when it closes. When an app launches on iOS, it initially draws the UI from a saved screenshot while the app is loading. This creates a privacy risk since that image may contain sensitive info.

Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#74

Why is the iPhone app called Signal whereas the Android app is called RedPhone? (as an aside, I love the screenshots for RedPhone https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcri... )

I've contributed to the development of Signal 2.0, and you can also check out this blog post. https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal/

On Android you can use RedPhone for secure calls and TextSecure for secure text messages. These calls and text messages are compatible with calls and text messages in Signal iOS. Someday TextSecure and RedPhone on Android will be integrated into one unified product called Signal.

Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#75
post #72

The "screen security" feature on iOS appears to do nothing. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

It stops iOS from saving screenshots of the app when it closes. When an app launches on iOS, it initially draws the UI from a saved screenshot while the app is loading. This creates a privacy risk since that image may contain sensitive info.

Oh, wow, I thought it was some sort of lock screen for the app. There should be a description.

Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using textsecure for a long time now: so far I haven't had any issues messaging new iOS users including mixed groups. In my experience, there might be some mms edge cases when mixing with other messaging apps, but not too many and bug reports are monitored regularly on github.

Cool, thanks. So, I got it working with some friends. The start is rough when you don't have any contacts. There is no hand holding like you'd expect from other messaging apps. Especially the first message to the first contact is a tough discovery. I managed to mistakenly call instead of texting and another friend did exactly the same. The error message when you are not registered yet is also not totally clear. One f…

Can you document how to add contacts? I've been poking around to no avail.

Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#77
post #43

If anyone from Whisper Systems is reading, can you please tell me how I can disassociate my number from a Cyanogenmod installed version of TextSecure in my (now formatted and sold) Nexus 4 and get it working with my no sim Nexus 5 with Google Voice/Hangouts?

Try these:

* https://whispertool.cyanogenmod.org/

* https://github.com/daveio/whisperpush-unregister

Set up TextSecure with the Voice option, then go to Settings -> untick "Push messages". That should perform unregistration, then you can re-register.

Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#78

Presumably there are still multiple ways for messages to be intercepted from the user's iPhone: - Physical access or confiscation of the device - Possible backdoor in iOS or the physical iPhone hardware? - Compromise or physical access to a host machine where the user backs up their device. Although, I'm not sure what can be done to stop this.

There's no such thing as perfect security in the real world. Instead, your best bet is to raise the cost of breaking the security that you do have. If you raise that cost above the value of that which you're securing, then you are in good shape.

Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#79
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It stops iOS from saving screenshots of the app when it closes. When an app launches on iOS, it initially draws the UI from a saved screenshot while the app is loading. This creates a privacy risk since that image may contain sensitive info.

Oh, wow, I thought it was some sort of lock screen for the app. There should be a description.

TextSecure has the option to lock the app after a timeout (or on command), and not unlock it until a passcode is given. I suspect Signal has something similar.

Re: Signal 2.0 released with private messaging support

#80

Why is the iPhone app called Signal whereas the Android app is called RedPhone? (as an aside, I love the screenshots for RedPhone https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcri... )

On Android, they first started with TextSecure years ago, then built the voice app, RedPhone.

Signal is a rebranding that began with the first app on the iOS platform, which happened to be the voice app. However, Signal is intended to be a fully "integrated" app, that will include text, voice, photo/video attachments, and hopefully video-chatting eventually, too, to take on Skype.

The Android version of Signal will probably arrive this year, too, and when it does TextSecure and RedPhone should be gone from the Play Store.

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