Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

support.signal.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 226 posts

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#171

Post by tssva »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #108
windexh8er wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it is and how it contributes to me daily I don't believe it's high. $5/month for the peace of mind Signal provides is something I can make a case for. I subscribe to the $10/month level - because everyone in my circle uses it, and I pushed many of them in that direction. I want it to succeed, I want it to continue to improve, I want it to be available. I know I spend more than $10/month on other things that…

How did you get your friends to switch? I have tried and, dude, my group will just not change from their pre-installed messaging apps, except for 2 of them. They don't care that it's more secure (arguably) or that you can pull it up on your computer (my main reason for using it), they just have no interest.

I don't switch to Signal, Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Discord, etc. because I have several different friend groups, family groups and people which belong to none of these groups I message with. Occasionally someone from one of the groups will try to get people to switch but the problem is none of them choose the same messaging app, so changing now puts people in the position of having to use multiple different messaging apps and remembering which they need to use for each person. It is a lot easier to stick to the common ground everyone has which in the US is your pre-installed messaging app. On the iPhone this allows you to reach everyone via either Apple's proprietary service or SMS. On Android this allows you to reach everyone via SMS or RCS. When you ask your friends to switch messaging apps you are asking them to do something which complicates their use of messaging but appears to provide no relevant benefits to them.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#172

Post by gherkinnn »

dfkajglag wrote: post #12

Reminder that Signal server source code is not fully released and the app is heavily dependent on google services to operate. Signal also takes measures against third party or unofficial apps. Whatever you say about privacy Signal is not an ally of user freedom.

My grandparents can all set it up without me flying over to do it for them.

Concessions have to be made somewhere.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#173

Post by hwhelan210 »

gaius_baltar wrote: post #43

They should sell the ability of creating an account not attached to a phone number. Pay $5, get a code that allows creating a single account, enter the code somewhere in the app to allow using a user name in place of the phone. This limits spam and, as this code can also be sent to another person, there is a way to hide the relationship between payer and final user. No need for cryptocoins, NFTs, or other stupid thin…

You might be interested in the technical reasons for requiring a phone number to use Signal. Not sure if there have been any updates since this blog post. https://signal.org/blog/secure-value-recovery/

> One challenge has been that if we added support for something like usernames in Signal, those usernames wouldn’t get saved in your phone’s address book. Thus if you reinstalled Signal or got a new device, you would lose your entire social graph, because it’s not saved anywhere else. Other messaging apps solve this by storing a plaintext copy of your address book, social graph, and conversation frequency on their servers. That way your phone can get run over by a car without flattening your social graph in those apps, but it comes at a high privacy price.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#174

Post by tablespoon »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #108
windexh8er wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it is and how it contributes to me daily I don't believe it's high. $5/month for the peace of mind Signal provides is something I can make a case for. I subscribe to the $10/month level - because everyone in my circle uses it, and I pushed many of them in that direction. I want it to succeed, I want it to continue to improve, I want it to be available. I know I spend more than $10/month on other things that…

How did you get your friends to switch? I have tried and, dude, my group will just not change from their pre-installed messaging apps, except for 2 of them. They don't care that it's more secure (arguably) or that you can pull it up on your computer (my main reason for using it), they just have no interest.

> I have tried and, dude, my group will just not change from their pre-installed messaging apps, except for 2 of them. They don't care that it's more secure (arguably) or that you can pull it up on your computer (my main reason for using it), they just have no interest.

How close is your group? It's probably feasible to convince best friends and family to switch, but if your group contains a lot of less close friends and acquaintances, I doubt it's possible for one person to initiate a switch.

Also, it helps if you're willing to be a bit difficult, and refuse to continue to use the old app. But that only works with people who are close enough to care about communicating with you.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#175

Post by binkHN »

dfkajglag wrote: post #12

Reminder that Signal server source code is not fully released and the app is heavily dependent on google services to operate. Signal also takes measures against third party or unofficial apps. Whatever you say about privacy Signal is not an ally of user freedom.

I’m tired of all these text messaging silos. Email is ubiquitous because no one owns it. RCS can’t come fast enough.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#176

Post by MrDresden »

imwillofficial wrote: post #133
MrDresden wrote: post #88

I had previously donated 2$ monthly for around 1.5 years through PayPal (through their webpage) and just recently noticed the badge system. Seeing that the minimum was 5$ left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I know, no one is forced to pay and 5$ for the service is not at all much. But what can I say. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

$3 would be worth it just to save time loggin in to PayPal to donate each month. (Or is there an automated way?)

Automated, setup through their webpage.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#177

Post by onychomys »

zaik wrote: post #168
defaultprimate wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Requiring a phone number is literally my only complaint about Signal, I used to just use a Google Voice number but then I learned about TextNow and have been migrating away from Google as much as possible https://www.textnow.com/how-it-works

My other complaint is that it's just another walled garden.

That's true of all messaging apps besides base text messages, though, isn't it? It's not like I can send a message on facebook messenger to somebody who reads it in telegram.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#178

Post by lucian1900 »

Freak_NL wrote: post #101
lucian1900 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phone number requirement is the only thing making Signal remotely close to usable for the wider public. Similarly, non-phone messaging is niche in the extreme. Unusable software is not an ally of user freedom. The actual problem with Signal is that they took US State Department funding. That doesn't mean it's an op necessarily, but suspicious nonetheless.

Why? If someone wants to use a phone number for their identifier, fine. But make it optional. If I join Signal with another alias (free-form string perhaps) then they could just add me via that. Not really harder than using my phone number.

If it's optional, then there is more than one way to identify users. For a non-technical user, that means they have to make a choice and understand that choice, as opposed to just always using a phone number.

And everyone with a phone has a phone number.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#179

Post by lucian1900 »

gefhfffh wrote: post #149
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Prioritizing your market share over private gains of your users Network effects make these virtually indistinguishable. If a network is unusable it doesn’t help anyone. There may be an argument, however, for charging for the opt out.

Unusable is a big stretch

If a network is not usable by anyone with a smartphone, it's strictly less usable than WhatsApp. That means in practice, it's unusable.
Post reply on HN