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

Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

signal.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 649 posts

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#201

Post by frankjr »

jacooper wrote: post #85

I think this will only affect US users, because nobody uses SMS outside the US. And switching between apps is the expected thing to do when trying to push people to another platform, I have telegram, signal, whatsapp and Element on my phone, this is why the new digital markets act is going to be revolutionary, especially with bridge friendly platforms like matrix.org.

> I think this will only affect US users, because nobody uses SMS outside the US

This is not true at all, at least for Czechia. The number is going down but it's still in billions (for a country with population of ~10.5M). Quoting from the official annual report:

> In the number of SMS messages sent from mobile networks in 2018, CTU estimates - in the context of the increasing popularity of OTT messengers (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, etc.) - a slight decrease relative to 2017, approximately by 2% to 8.21 billion SMS messages.

https://www.ctu.eu/sites/default/files/obsah/stranky/284221/...

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#202

Post by jhasse »

jacooper wrote: post #77
KerryJones wrote: post #24

... 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…

Correction, you dont need the privacy* Telegram is absolutely the worst when it comes to privacy, it has access to everything you do and say. If you want a master app, have a lot at matrix.org with bridges.

That's false: Telegram doesn't have access to secret chats.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#203

Post by jmcphers »

CommitSyn wrote: post #156
daedalus_j wrote: post #149

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?

The Google Messages app is pretty good. It's a little thing, but it's the only app that supports tapbacks from iOS -- so on the (many) group threads I'm on that have iPhone users, I can see loves/like reactions instead of a flood of texts that say "Jane Doe loved an image".

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#204

Post by nh2 »

wslack wrote: post #182
CommitSyn wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The provide a fairly clear rationale beyond the ideological concern: users don't know/see who is on SMS and who isn't, and are being hit with high fees, and they are concerned that users may believe they have privacy when they do not. These are reasonable issues and concerns, so I don't follow why you would question all of the other decisions they make.

> users don't know/see who is on SMS and who isn't

They could just show the literal word "SMS" in the send button.

I think that would be more obvious than wha they do now (button being grey instead of blue with a minimally changed lock symbol [1]).

[1]: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007318911#an...

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#205

Post by Xelynega »

mgbmtl wrote: post #127
stirfish wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "send by SMS" is a bit confusing Can you say more about what's confusing about this for you?

I don't like explaining to people that "yes it can do sms, and signal is sort of sms but not really" etc. and the workflow when adding someone is different (waiting for approval or not).

You sound misguided if you're trying to explain the details of signal to get them to use it. All they need to understand to use the app is "its sms", any e2ee they benefit from as a result are completely in the background.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#206

Post by daedalus_j »

branon wrote: post #134

SMS/MMS needs to die at this point. I am glad to see Signal take a hard line here even though it will cause some headache for users, of which I am one, though I do not use it to send outgoing SMS/MMS. These protocols are insecure, not private, and fundamentally incompatible with Signal's mission. Supporting them at all, while highly convenient, is a queer oxymoron for an app like Signal. We have to rip the bandaid of…

The theory is good, but when my non-technical schoolteacher neighbor wants to use her iPhone to tell me that my package was delivered to her house incorrectly she's going to pop open her iMessage app and look up my phone number, and that's going to come to me as an SMS.

There's no chance I'm going to get her to install Signal, she doesn't need it, her circle is almost all blue-bubble iPhone users who don't value anything Signal adds over what iMessages gives them.

This doesn't kill SMS/MMS. Not even a little tiny bit. All it does is make MY life more irritating because I have multiple apps that I have to deal with now. The way to kill it is to make something better that people WANT to use, that offers the extra value to make it worth the effort.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#208

Post by dylan604 »

roer wrote: post #196
wslack wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The provide a fairly clear rationale beyond the ideological concern: users don't know/see who is on SMS and who isn't, and are being hit with high fees, and they are concerned that users may believe they have privacy when they do not. These are reasonable issues and concerns, so I don't follow why you would question all of the other decisions they make.

There are surely ways around this that don't limit the functionality of the application

As if Signal couldn't change the color of the text bubbles to some shade of, let's just say, green, to indicate when a user is chatting via SMS instead of a Signal secured message.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#210

Post by bee_rider »

theLastOfCats wrote: post #180
eatwater123 wrote: post #10

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?")

Why three tho? Use one – Telegram.

Isn't Telegram partially closed source?
Post reply on HN