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Signal for Beginners

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Re: Signal for Beginners

#31

Post by mvdwoord »

tdkl wrote: post #19
mvdwoord wrote: post #2

I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages. Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will al…

What's wrong with pasting from clipboard ?

The wire desktop client currently does not support pasting an image from the clipboard. It is listed as a feature request though, so I expect it to be implemented in the near future.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#32

Post by mvdwoord »

lorenzhs wrote: post #7
mvdwoord wrote: post #2

I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages. Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will al…

Signal-Desktop does NOT require your phone to be on! After initial setup, it can be used completely independently of the phone (it only talks to the phone for contact sync, not messages). The opposite is often claimed on here and seems to be self-perpetuating, but it's wrong. (edited for clarification)

My apologies, Signal might not need it, but WhatsApp does. Out of order messages and some other quirks still make for a poor UX in my opinion.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#33

Post by mvdwoord »

johnchristopher wrote: post #14
mvdwoord wrote: post #2

I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages. Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will al…

Telegram doesn't require your phone to be online. I have a telegram account the number of which has never been used with the smartphone application.

I also use Telegram, it is currently my favourite messaging platform actually. It is not even so much the registering with a telephone I mind personally, but WhatsApp requires your phone to be online whilst using the desktop app. Jumping WiFi and VPN throughout the day this sometimes gets annoying. Testing wire for being Swiss based as well as being an implementation of the Axolotl/Signal protocol.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#34

Post by midgetjones »

wtbob wrote: post #24
zachlatta wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a usability problem. Can you think of anything easier? I can't.

> Can you think of anything easier? I think signal:wtbob works just as well as tel:+15551212, if we want to continue to rely on OWS as a central identity provider. I think that 'mom's dad's sister June' also works, if we want decentralised identity.

> 'mom's dad's sister June' also works

Can you expand on that? I'm not sure quite what you mean.

Also, my great aunt is called June.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#35

Post by shouldbew0rking »

saycheese wrote: post #9
lorenzhs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal-Desktop does NOT require your phone to be on! After initial setup, it can be used completely independently of the phone (it only talks to the phone for contact sync, not messages). The opposite is often claimed on here and seems to be self-perpetuating, but it's wrong. (edited for clarification)

Per the offical docs, you are required to create an account on a phone to use the desktop version: http://support.whispersystems.org/hc/en-us/articles/21507785... __________________ What do I need? 1. Register and set up Signal Android or Signal iOS 2. Download and install Google Chrome or use Chromium +++++++ EDIT: Having to buy and throw away a phone to use a service that's intent is to provide privacy is what it i…

Hello saycheese,

I have been toying with this idea, I haven't actually done it myself but I know people that have.

1) get a VOIP provider to give you a free iNum number

2) download signal to your smartphone or ipod of choice

3) during the registration phase, delete the number that it suggests, replace it with the iNum number from step 1.

4) make sure to have the registration process do the "voice call" method where it calls you and reads you off the registration number.

5) register.

Assuming that you already own a cellphone and you use a free voip app like csipsimple or linphone. iNums are free from most voip providers. Then this process costs nothing.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#36

Post by 725686 »

How does one know that the app being installed through an app store comes from the public source code? Shouldn't I need to create and install my own APK from source?

Re: Signal for Beginners

#38

Post by tdkl »

mvdwoord wrote: post #31
tdkl wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with pasting from clipboard ?

The wire desktop client currently does not support pasting an image from the clipboard. It is listed as a feature request though, so I expect it to be implemented in the near future.

Oh, I thought it's something about the mobile client. I also noticed it doesn't support drag/drop with an image, probably because it's an electron app and things like that has to be coded specifically.

Re: Signal for Beginners

#39

Post by mrbiber »

mvdwoord wrote: post #2

I have used Signal for a while, alongside Telegram and Whatsapp. I find the fact that they are chrome apps / require your phone to be online very annoying. Also I find signal regularly messes with the order of messages. Right now I am testing with Wire, and waiting for proper pasting from clipboard. Although I am concerned with privacy, and I applaud the efforts from OWS, usability is more important to me. It will al…

If you are interested in federation, riot.im [1] / matrix.org seems to have comparable security properties to Signal, allows federation of servers and does not require your phone number or Google Play.

[1] https://riot.im

Re: Signal for Beginners

#40

Post by [deleted] »

xorcist wrote: post #29
arglebarnacle wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sensitive to this concern, but remember that the phone number you register with Signal doesn't have to be your real phone number or identical to the phone number of your primary Signal device. You can just get a VOIP number or burner phone somewhere in a relatively anonymous manner, register it with Signal on your android phone, and go about your business if anonymity is an important requirement for you.

Isn't that risky? The subscriber number will sooner or later be recycled for another device (in the case of burner phones) or customer (in the case of voip). They could in turn disrupt your Signal use.

[deleted]
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