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

Signal commit Username Integration Test

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 76 posts

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#51

Post by tapoxi »

codedokode wrote: post #10

Signal is finally copying what Telegram has implemented since long ago? Do people in the West simply do not care about hiding their number (judging by WhatsApp and Signal)?

Why are you comparing Signal to Telegram? Telegram keeps all of your conversations on their servers in plain text, not to mention any other metadata. Signal only keeps your registration time and last login time. Yes it uses your phone number to do this, but they don't have anything else. Not even your contact list or who sent a message, they just know a blob went somewhere.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#52

Post by Krasnol »

codedokode wrote: post #47
Krasnol wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your group chats go into a black box unencrypted. You don't know what happens to it because it's not E2E. You also gave your phone number to this shady company who runs those servers which keep everything you wrote. Even Whatsapp is better than this. And what is that phone number fetish? It's not like it is some magic identifier. There are bots out there testing every number out there and sending you SNS spam. Your p…

In WhatsApp or Signal your number is visible and anyone in a public group can know who you are and burn down your house if you write something they didn't like. Yes, Telegram knows your number and your messages but it is unlikely that they will give them out to random weirdo^W manly person with strong sense of injustice.

There are no "public groups" in Signal. Don't know about Whatsapp since I don't have it anymore. All of my groups consist of people I know. You still don't understand the use case.

> elegram knows your number and your messages but it is unlikely that they will give them out

How do you know that? Do you know the people personally or where is your knowledge coming from because if you don't know them, you are just another user who gave out all of their chat contents AND the phone number to "some people somewhere". Nothing else. You have no guarantee for anything, and you should already know that they do act upon requests from governments. Google it.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#53

Post by vdqtp3 »

fragmede wrote: post #15
vdqtp3 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone actually use the stories feature?

My friends on Signal do, but I have no idea how widespread it is across their whole userbase. It's not as in-your-face as Instagram, which is actually kind of nice, but like it's being said - signal is social media. you can choose to not use that feature but that's on you. To look at you and your friend group and extrapolate from there is not science, or data driven. the plural of anecdote is not data. It's like sayi…

> To look at you and your friend group and extrapolate from there is not science, or data driven. the plural of anecdote is not data.

Calm down there buddy, I just asked a question.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#54

Post by noman-land »

codedokode wrote: post #10

Signal is finally copying what Telegram has implemented since long ago? Do people in the West simply do not care about hiding their number (judging by WhatsApp and Signal)?

Signal started as an e2e replacement for SMS, so it chose phone numbers on purpose to solve the discoverability problem, under the assumption that people will be communicating with all the same people who already have their number.

Telegram has always been more social and more for communities or groups of potential strangers.

The fact that people complain about Signal doxing you is in some ways a good sign, because it suggests Signal has become so popular and trusted that strangers want to use it to communicate privately.

Signal helped pave the way for mainstream society to use communication tools that respect them without being a hacker or messing with a terminal.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#55

Post by daveloyall »

Krasnol wrote: post #52
codedokode wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In WhatsApp or Signal your number is visible and anyone in a public group can know who you are and burn down your house if you write something they didn't like. Yes, Telegram knows your number and your messages but it is unlikely that they will give them out to random weirdo^W manly person with strong sense of injustice.

There are no "public groups" in Signal. Don't know about Whatsapp since I don't have it anymore. All of my groups consist of people I know. You still don't understand the use case. > elegram knows your number and your messages but it is unlikely that they will give them out How do you know that? Do you know the people personally or where is your knowledge coming from because if you don't know them, you are just anoth…

Group Settings > Group Link

Then share the link publicly. Signal Public Groups.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#56

Post by fragmede »

vdqtp3 wrote: post #53
fragmede wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friends on Signal do, but I have no idea how widespread it is across their whole userbase. It's not as in-your-face as Instagram, which is actually kind of nice, but like it's being said - signal is social media. you can choose to not use that feature but that's on you. To look at you and your friend group and extrapolate from there is not science, or data driven. the plural of anecdote is not data. It's like sayi…

> To look at you and your friend group and extrapolate from there is not science, or data driven. the plural of anecdote is not data. Calm down there buddy, I just asked a question.

I'm not sure where you're reading anger. the question was written in such a way that indicates that your cohort doesn't use the feature. I was merely indicating that it is foolish to look at your cohort and extrapolate to the rest of the population unless you've got outside data.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#57

Post by wkat4242 »

contact9879 wrote: post #7
barbazoo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal at the moment requires a phone number. People don't like that e.g. for privacy reasons. Signal said they'll eventually support usernames, this is a signal that there's progress.

Signal will still require a phone number for registration. You will be able to hide your phone number and use a username instead.

Crap, I wish I could use it without a phone number altogether.

I was hoping this would be the case. It's the problem with telegram too, you can show a username but you must still have a phone number.

Matrix does this really well though. So I use that a lot. Unfortunately not many people do.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#58

Post by wkat4242 »

Krasnol wrote: post #20
codedokode wrote: post #10

Signal is finally copying what Telegram has implemented since long ago? Do people in the West simply do not care about hiding their number (judging by WhatsApp and Signal)?

Bringing up Telegram in this context makes it quite funny, since Telegram users seem not to care about the safety of the contents of their chats at all in this shady black box. Phone numbers are a quite ridiculously small problem compared to that.

I use telegram mostly for chats to public groups that anyone can join anyway. So the end to end point is kinda moot. Same with IRC for example. This is why nobody complains about it not having that.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#59

Post by wkat4242 »

Krasnol wrote: post #42
codedokode wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. If you join a public chat in Telegram you don't have to share your phone number with other members so you don't have to be afraid that they will find you in real life. You can write anything you want. But with WhatsApp or Signal you have to share a phone number with everyone which means they can easily find who you are and where you live (this data is cheaply sold on black market).

Your group chats go into a black box unencrypted. You don't know what happens to it because it's not E2E. You also gave your phone number to this shady company who runs those servers which keep everything you wrote. Even Whatsapp is better than this. And what is that phone number fetish? It's not like it is some magic identifier. There are bots out there testing every number out there and sending you SNS spam. Your p…

Telegram is not only used for porn and piracy. In fact there's much better places to get those things.

I just use it to follow events at clubs in interested in. There's a bit of an overlap with Instagram but I find the telegram experience nicer. Less ads, no stupid 'reels' forced upon me.

Re: Signal commit Username Integration Test

#60

Post by GlumWoodpecker »

wkat4242 wrote: post #57
contact9879 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal will still require a phone number for registration. You will be able to hide your phone number and use a username instead.

Crap, I wish I could use it without a phone number altogether. I was hoping this would be the case. It's the problem with telegram too, you can show a username but you must still have a phone number. Matrix does this really well though. So I use that a lot. Unfortunately not many people do.

Session [0] is an up and coming, open source E2EE messenger that doesn't rely on phone numbers (and doesn't require them). It also routes messages through Tor. It's fast and reliable, and I always get notifications on time.

It has some disadvantages though, depending on how you use it. Your ID is a 66 character long hexadecimal hash instead of a classic username. Another disadvantage I've found is the paltry 10 MB attachment limit - trying to share a short video clip I made on my phone required several re-encodes to dip below the limit. Even some still photos will hit that limit, depending on complexity. So not very good for sharing media, but great for texting, in my experience.

[0]: https://getsession.org/

Post reply on HN