181–190 of 649 posts
This 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…
I'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…
Yes, this is an idiotic decision that makes me question the decisions being made as a whole by Signal. Does anyone have recommendations for a good default SMS app on Android?
These are reasonable issues and concerns, so I don't follow why you would question all of the other decisions they make.
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?")
Signal seem to have adopted the "Decisions, not Options"[^1] route way too well, so don't act surprised. This is why we need at least open source clients that can be forked when these decisions are made. [^1]: https://wordpress.org/about/philosophy/
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 will be recommending against using Signal for any reason whatsoever to unless this decision changes. If it goes through, I'll move myself and everyone to something else. The options for e2e encryption are many today and I already have to have a bunch of these apps, so Signal becomes pointless. If they do this, they'll do worse later. Better to get out now at the "first" red flag.
One bright side of this is that Android's (Google's) Messages app has been pushing hard on RCS (the intended successor to SMS) and by default now does auto-upgrade to end-to-end encryption with any other messages users. If you're using signal, you don't get that auto-upgrade, so for conversations with anyone using a "default" google phone setup you were actually getting less net security on your comms compared to usi…
Does AOSP Messaging do RCS? I am assuming not.
It seems Google is going to let it die to move people to Google Messages.
... and there's the reason I will likely stop using Signal? Signal was always one of those "win-win" apps, get more security when it's available and I don't have to worry about adding to the giant bucket of messaging apps. They were a paragon of putting the user first and I was a strong supporter... but now... Why not Telegram? Or anything else? I don't need the security, it was nice-to-have. Having to switch between…
> Signal was always one of those "win-win" apps, get more security when it's available and I don't have to worry about adding to the giant bucket of messaging apps.
Same here. I see no reason to continue using Signal if they do this.
I get their reasoning that SMS is insecure and you don't want to accidentially send an SMS. I use Signal mostly for "confidential" things, but every now and then for the occasional person who contacts me there. So Signal is my "secure" app, Whatsapp my "family" app, and so on. It's really weird if a family member shows up in my secure activism chat app. It would make more sense if there was one codebase that supporte…
Matrix Bridges might also be a good option.