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Disappearing messages for Signal

whispersystems.org

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Re: Disappearing messages for Signal

#41

Post by subliminalpanda »

MereKatMoves wrote: post #37
subliminalpanda wrote: post #4

Signal keeps getting better with each release, great job at everyone from Whisper Systems.

I love using Signal and will continue to make modest donations, but I would really appreciate an improvement in audio call quality. I still use Silent Circle for calls because it is so tiring to talk when the bitrate is low.

Agreed. WhatsApp calls are near flawless when connections are good, I'm sure WS can reach audio quality parity.

I often get disconnected on Signal after 20 minutes or so on a voice call, but I suspect that's due to the other end being behind a VPN with awful latency.

Re: Disappearing messages for Signal

#42

Post by kuschku »

uph wrote: post #40
kuschku wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

What good is a seatbelt if the person sitting next to you can stab you? The blog post makes a point of this not being secure if the person you're messaging is malicious and that's not what it's for. I think these two comments make good points: I just had an interesting conversation with a friend who was recommending that I use Telegram/Wickr, and I told him that Signal was where it's at. Then he asked me if it had se…

[deleted]

Re: Disappearing messages for Signal

#43

Post by gault8121 »

uph wrote: post #40
kuschku wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

What good is a seatbelt if the person sitting next to you can stab you? The blog post makes a point of this not being secure if the person you're messaging is malicious and that's not what it's for. I think these two comments make good points: I just had an interesting conversation with a friend who was recommending that I use Telegram/Wickr, and I told him that Signal was where it's at. Then he asked me if it had se…

Yes, this is a very insightful comment, and I think it should have been mentioned in the blog post. Many people don't use security passwords on their phones, and people can also be coerced into providing that information. Providing the option for automatically expired messages is a nice redundancy measure.

Great job on the app! It's one of the few apps I use every day.

Re: Disappearing messages for Signal

#44

Post by uph »

kuschku wrote: post #42
uph wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What good is a seatbelt if the person sitting next to you can stab you? The blog post makes a point of this not being secure if the person you're messaging is malicious and that's not what it's for. I think these two comments make good points: I just had an interesting conversation with a friend who was recommending that I use Telegram/Wickr, and I told him that Signal was where it's at. Then he asked me if it had se…

[deleted]

Yes, if everyone switches to a fork that doesn't have a particular feature, then they won't have that particular feature.

Re: Disappearing messages for Signal

#45

Post by kkl »

MereKatMoves wrote: post #37
subliminalpanda wrote: post #4

Signal keeps getting better with each release, great job at everyone from Whisper Systems.

I love using Signal and will continue to make modest donations, but I would really appreciate an improvement in audio call quality. I still use Silent Circle for calls because it is so tiring to talk when the bitrate is low.

My Signal phone audio issues went away after I upgraded hardware. Not a great solution (obviously) but something worth noting.

Re: Disappearing messages for Signal

#47

Post by uph »

cyphar wrote: post #38

Cool feature, though it'd be nice if Signal fixed the message delay and message dropping problem. But Signal uses the proprietary GCM service (because "it's impossible to do message sending correctly, so let's force people to use proprietary software") so they probably can't fix it...

No one is forcing you to use proprietary software. See this comment from moxie https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10665520

Using GCM is only a problem for people running a custom Android ROM without Google Play Services. Using GCM doesn't make Signal less private.

Google doesn't see any data via gcm, it's just a tickle. If you want push messages, you gotta use a push network.

https://twitter.com/whispersystems/status/695399112833761283

Feel free to help out with code https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/43 or money https://www.bountysource.com/issues/35722527-create-proper-p... if using Signal without GCM is important to you.

If the only thing that the remaining people here want out of LibreSignal is a websocket-only solution and gmscore isn't an option for whatever reason, I would consider a clean, well written, and well tested PR for websocket-only support in Signal. I expect it to have high battery consumption and an unreliable user experience, but would be fine with it if it comes with a warning and only runs in the absence of play services. However, I also realize that still won't help people that are trying to build a Google-free experience on Google's platform https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/127 , since we still don't have the things we need https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/127#... to be comfortable distributing software outside of Play.

https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco...

Considering how a small minority complain about this everytime Signal is mentioned you'd think they'd do something about it, but take a look at that Bountysource link and you'll see 8 backers. Guess complaining is easier.

Re: Disappearing messages for Signal

#48

Post by MereKatMoves »

kkl wrote: post #45
MereKatMoves wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love using Signal and will continue to make modest donations, but I would really appreciate an improvement in audio call quality. I still use Silent Circle for calls because it is so tiring to talk when the bitrate is low.

My Signal phone audio issues went away after I upgraded hardware. Not a great solution (obviously) but something worth noting.

that's interesting. I'm running a 2 year old Xperia Z3 and it never occurred to me that my CPU might be the issue, but SC seems to handle audio quality just fine

edit - what did you upgrade to/from?

Re: Disappearing messages for Signal

#50

Post by AckSyn »

Now if they would drop the ridiculous requirement of having a phone number and go with usernames and not require access to my contact list like most other services, you could actually be safer and not rely on _their word_ alone.
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