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Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

signal.org

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Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#481

Post by Thorentis »

nilespotter wrote: post #189
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…

> ... 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. Same here. I see no reason to continue using Signal if they do this.

Which E2E encrypted app that matches Signals security will you be switching to instead?

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#482

Post by tannhaeuser »

Krasnol wrote: post #365
codethief wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in Germany where nobody seems to use SMS anymore. That's not true at all. I assume that besides Signal you use WhatsApp, though?

I haven't met a single person using SMS for so long that I can't even remember the phone I had last time I used it. I do work with a lot different contractors. And yes, WhatsApp is prevalent here.

You're saying this as if it were preferable to give all your contacts and metadata to WhatsApp/Facebook.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#483

Post by Flimm »

S0und wrote: post #286

Why do I have the feeling that every person who complains about this as something of a deal breaker are from the US? This is so weird, the rest of the world moved on SMS 10-15 years ago.

But aren't iPhones popular in the US? Signal on iOS never supported SMS to begin with.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#484

Post by daedalus_j »

godelski wrote: post #394
daedalus_j wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I set a conversation length limit though it prevents my ability to search back through my history, which is the feature I'd like to preserve. I value that history, it's useful to me. My ideal solution would be to export any message older than a month to an archive on my NAS, ideally in a format that the app could search on request. Keep my history, keep the on-device space nice and small. I take advantage of the A…

> My ideal solution would be to export any message older than a month to an archive on my NAS I'm confused at what is stopping you from doing this? > ideally in a format that the app could search on request. Are you not able to import these backups into the desktop client? IIRC it is just reading from a file structure. I don't see why a small script couldn't resolve this. Obviously you wouldn't be able to search on y…

> I'm confused at what is stopping you from doing this?

As far as I know the backup is encrypted.

> Are you not able to import these backups into the desktop client?

No, the desktop client is not standalone, and ONLY syncs with the a phone to get content. Moreover, if you don't use the client for a period (2-3 weeks in my experience?) it de-syncs that desktop client. Re-connecting that desktop to your phone will only sync messages starting as-of the connection, so there's no way to get the desktop app to pull your whole history. (This is another gripe I have about their sacrifice of actual usability for security that only helps a few very specific use-cases.)

You're probably rigth about hacking something together. Someone has created a library [0] allegedly for decoding the backup files. Friday night is D&D night though, so I haven't had the chance. :-)

[0] https://github.com/pajowu/signal-backup-decode

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#485

Post by dzikimarian »

Krasnol wrote: post #254
mderazon wrote: post #244

Outside I think mostly the US, SMS is basically only used for spam and 2fa messages. I can't remember the last time I communicated with someone via SMS to be honest. To hear that people use it in group chats is mind boggling to me.

I'm with you. Totally confused about the outcry and use cases. Sounds like the 90s over here.

US is iPhone-land. iPhone users default to iMessage and "don't want another app", so SMS is still going strong, as it's only bridge between ecosystems.

Rest of the world is more diverse, so iPhone users don't get to force their default on everyone (as it's crappy if you don't have an iPhone). Also Google constantly fails to build vaiable, cross platform alternative. Therefore everyone is used to having a few apps.

Basically situation in US is what you get if you allow entire nation to be put in walled garden.

Also it's absurd, that instant messaging, that had zero meaningful innovation over last 20 years, still isn't over open protocol and we tolerate that's used by corporations to pressure customers into their ecosystems.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#486

Post by aidenn0 »

h4waii wrote: post #176

It was obvious this was going to happen when they refused to implement RCS. So instead of working on RCS, we got mobilecoin, stickers, gif search, and now yank out legacy SMS support so more "features" can be developed? As an early adopter of TextSecure, through CyanogenMod integration, to Signal and everything in between, I have the t-shirts and all -- I am done with Signal.

They didn't refuse to implement RCS; Android doesn't provide APIs for RCS.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#487

Post by Mystery-Machine »

Terrible decision. They have a nice blue branding. What they could've done instead is to show SMS messages as green bubbles and then we'd have: green bubbles / blue bubbles, just like with iMessage, except this time it works both on iOS _and_ Android. This might win them over more and more users.

If they manage to make the UI and feature set as complete as iMessage, it would convince people to switch to Signal much much faster than Google's pity RCS bashing of Apple.

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#489

Post by dugite-code »

Well this just killed signal for me. The only reason I got my close family switched over to signal at all was it's SMS support, now that only the family uses it none of the family will bother opening it.

This trend of siloing functions into seperate apps is confusing and frustrating for regular users, especially elderly users like my mother "Just push this button you can text and call me and text any of your friends"

Re: Removing SMS support from Signal Android (soon)

#490

Post by caf »

nicholasjarnold wrote: post #310
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…

I agree completely here. This is terrible news from my perspective too. I use Signal for _all messaging_ (e2e secure or not) for the reasons that you mention. I've onboarded friends and family, too, ensuring them it should be set as their default messaging app and that it _just works_. Unfortunately, people in the general population seem to have pretty much zero tolerance for any friction whatsoever. If they have to…

If they have to use 2 apps, they'll just end up communicating with me in the clear using their "default SMS" app on their phone. That's what this is going to result it...a reduction in overall message security due to people defaulting to what's easier...which is to _not_ have to remember which app to use for which "send a message" purpose. Fuck.

Exactly right. In fact, I will be doing this too. Right now, I use Signal as my default messaging app, and messages go via Signal to people who've registered their phone number with Signal without me having to do anything to effect that. When Signal stops working as an SMS client, I'm not going to look up which of my contacts wants to use Signal and which can only use SMS - I'm just going to use my default SMS app for everything except the couple of group chats which are on Signal already. Messages which would have been opportunistically encrypted are now going to go out plaintext, because the friction to find out who uses Signal and who doesn't is too high.

This already happens with iOS, because the Signal app doesn't work as a default SMS client. People who use Signal and Android reliably send me messages over Signal, whereas my contacts who use Signal and iOS mostly send messages over SMS unless they're directly replying to something I've sent them over Signal.

And even if I wanted to do the work to send everything over Signal to those contacts, how am I supposed to remember exactly which of my kid's friend's parents use Signal and which don't? Fuck it, the juice isn't worth the squeeze, everything is going over SMS.

I'll just have to hope that Google figures out a way integrate a seamless, opportunistic end-to-end encryption protocol into the default Android messaging client, since Signal is deliberately dropping the ball here.

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