“When you use Signal, your data is stored in encrypted form on your devices. The only information that is stored on the Signal servers for each account is the phone number you registered with, the date and time you joined the service, and the date you last logged on.”
This isn’t an ad, I wasn’t paid for this post. Just to clear the air: fuck facebook, fuck elon musk and twitter, fuck anyone who thinks this is a paid advertisement. I wish I was paid for this shit, I just wanted to spread the word. Thank you. 😀 👍
I use Signal but it’s on its own path to becoming enshittified too. Less like Reddit, more like Firefox, the people in charge are just clueless about the signal userbase.
It won’t be long until there’s a shift to an alternative because the current president of the signal foundation is one step away from turning it into Snapchat.
Instead of pumping money into increasing awareness or enhancing reliability of the service, the Signal team have wasted effort on features that nobody asked for, including its very own crypto shitcoin (a major red flag for any company). They also remove features people relied on, such as SMS support.
It’s hard to trust the Signal team when they continually disappoint in such egregious ways.
I pretty much dropped Signal after they announced they were losing SMS support. It’s hard enough to sell my peers on another messaging app as it is, and Signal’s UI choices have been frustrating from the get go.
For what it’s worth, Google has picked up the same or better end-to-end encryption as Signal for users of its default messenger but will likely never do away with SMS support.
https://9to5google.com/2023/03/24/messaging-is-not-androids-mess-iphone-problem-with-lockheimer/
I still wish they hadn’t dropped sms on android. A few family members dropped signal as soon as they needed another app for messaging.
I still don’t understand why they did that, I used to use Signal for everything and while it was clear that it couldn’t encrypt basic SMS I could at least do all my messaging in one place. Now, I can’t communicate with 80% of my contacts via Signal even if I wanted to, forcing two separate messaging apps.
Just let me send unsecured messages. It’s fine. As it stands now I don’t think I’ve even opened Signal in nearly six months even though I’d much rather use it than the default messenger.
Sadly, I think they saw the writing on the wall with Google’s RCS push, and the decided lack of RCS APIs for Android apps to implement an RCS interface outside of Google. SMS has a lot of staying power, so it won’t happen overnight. But there’s a good chance that third-party RCS apps on Android will never be a real thing, or will forever end up hobbled. I think the Signal product folks imagined they had a LOT more clout than they actually had in the community. Sort of a less disastrous version of the Twitter and Reddit changes this year, trying to lock folks in.
Still fascinates me how many folks in the US use SMS. It’s been dead for over a decade now over here. I mean I would have expected it to stay with a lot of folks using feature phones. But that also not the case as far as I know.
Because it’s a universal standard. It doesn’t matter if they have an android, and apple, a microsoft phone, some LG flip phone- SMS Just Works.
And the fact that Signal has dropped support for it is why Signal no longer works and has lost basically it’s entire US/European market, because it’s now just another walled garden that needs people to get people- and it doesn’t have the people.
I thought most parts of Europe are the ones that dropped SMS
I only communicate with two people in signal. I still use it because I genuinely despise Android messenger.
2 people, one of which is your relative and the other drug dealer I imagine
Downvoted but the only people I know who used signal were drug dealers/users
Cuz, it was about killing functionality in order to grow their market share. Just go listen to the new lame ass Signal CEO. It’s capitalism that ruined Signal like it does everything
What are you talking about? Where did they say that? How does capitalism ruin a non-profit organization? It makes absolute sense for them to have removed SMS. Here’s their statement about the removal: https://www.signal.org/blog/sms-removal-android/
This was always the hardest part of these types of apps for me… getting people who just want something to work and already have a working thing are pretty impossible to get to swtich
Yup, I used Signal for years, it was my standard “messager” for everyone, people with Signal too or regular SMS. since they dropped SMS, I dropped Signal…
Yeah this same thing happened to me. I rarely get messages in signal anymore and can’t reliably know who still has it installed. It’s great for folks you are in regular communication with though.
I made it easy by making it the only messenger I use. Sure, you can send me a sms, but that’s not gonna work for pictures and especially videos.
I removed it immediately because of this. It’s inconvenient to try and remember who I can communicate with through signal, and who I have to use a different app for. Signal jumped the shark.
Yupp. Had been working for a while on getting people to Signal, and then they dropped SMS, and they moved to other things and i couldn’t realy recommend it anymore.
Not only that, it makes people less likely to move to something new. I had almost everyone moved to signal. Now there’s one left, because it doesn’t work for SMS. Great choice they made. I haven’t even been able to convince one of my contacts to install simplex, and I doubt I’ll ever be able to. I had one shot, and wasted it on signal. I’m kind of salty.
I’m very glad they did. It was hard to recommend while they did, it’s a huge security risk! Sms needs to die
Is this an ad? It feels like an ad.
Anyway I much prefer Signal but thanks to boomer co-workers I’m still also forced to use Whatsapp.
It’s an ad and it’s not even subtle about it.
This isn’t an ad, I wasn’t paid for this post. Just to clear the air: fuck facebook, fuck elon musk and twitter, fuck anyone who thinks this is a paid advertisement. I wish I was paid for this shit, I just wanted to spread the word. Thank you. 😀 👍
Isn’t Whatsapp encrypted end to end?
Facebook owns it.
That doesn’t bother me as long as the messages are encrypted end to end.
The worst part of using Signal is to try and convince all your friends/family to use Signal. Otherwise it’s a pretty great messaging app. You can’t edit messages once they’re sent, but other than that it’s pretty great.
I used to donate to Signal, and they made the stupidest fucking decision I’ve ever seen.
You used to be able to use signal (at least on Android) as your default messenger app, sending encrypted Signals to other users, or SMS to non-signal users. Have a normie family member who doesn’t know about computers? Easy, set it & forget it.
Now? They removed that functionality, so it only works for other signal users. Someone else had a good metaphor: imagine if http and https needed different web browsers & you couldn’t see one on the other. How well do you think https uptake would have been?
So fucking stupid.
Lmao WHAT? They seriously did this? Yeah say goodbye to having my boomer parents understand anything else other than what’s loaded on their shitty $50 android phone they got for free from their shitty CDMA provider…
I hear you, but, SMS is the farthest from secure you can get - so I can see why they chose not to support it.
A really secure messaging system is worthless if it’s not used. SMS too insecure? Ok, change the UI to reflect that. Have an open lock symbol or eye. Notification reminders that it’s insecure & nudge to invite your friend to Signal.
Boomer parents using Signal & now it doesn’t support SMS? Congrats, now the app doesn’t work to message the majority of their contacts. The average user isn’t going to check if someone’s on signal, send them an invite, then wait to message until they get the app. They’ll just move to their (Android) default message app that literally works with all US phones. Congrats, now less signal users, gj .
I think that might be a narrow view though. Most of the world likely doesn’t use SMS anymore (for probably a decade). So removing SMS didn’t make much of a difference there, but increased security. Especially when people are used to use multiple apps anyways.
So the better analogy would be “imagine if gopher and http needed separate browsers”. Except they do.
Most of the world likely doesn’t use SMS anymore
Wow, so I guess all the countries in the world that DO still use it primarily, including the US, most of Europe, canada, etc, can go screw themselves?
Nobody wins when you try to gatekeep security. Stop doing that.
German here. Nobody ever uses SMS, literally nobody. They are only used for 2fa.
I’m aware of few people who use SMS in Europe, and very few people who use it as their primary means of texting; I’ve even seen people outright ask that they not be sent SMSs. WhatsApp is almost ubiquitous, and it often feels like it’s assumed everyone has it, even if they don’t use it as their primary texting method.
It does seem very common in the US, however.
Yeah. That’s my experience as well. I will also ask people to stop sending me SMS. The last time that happened was probably over 10 years ago though. Everyone I ever met (except for US folks) uses messengers nowadays. I mean even a lot of US folks use iMessage instead of SMS. Even though that’s weird as well. Since I would expect folks to use some universal app that isn’t restricted to a specific phone brand.
Most of the world likely doesn’t use SMS anymore
That has not been the case from what I’ve seen (I’m Australian). The only widespread methods of communication I see are SMS and iMessage. Things like Discord and Instagram are only used among younger people.
Edit: Actually people do use Facebook messenger. Don’t know how many though
50% of the US uses Android. All android phones can text each other & iPhones by default via SMS in the US. The United States is 300 million people, and also the literal home of the Signal Foundation.
You’re right, that is a good analogy. Https used the same browser as http, and now https is widespread. Gopher needs a whole separate browser. It’s niche. Good security only works if people actually use it.
The US is a weird place. Feels like such a modern country but then they use technology from the last century and no one seems to question that …
i miss SMS, makes it easy to sneak in a change. swap them to signal, where they do their SMS, and as people become signalified, then they start sending them signals. It was such a market creator for little cost.
Oh well.
But you CAN delete messages for after they are sent if the chat is set up that way. You can also set chats up so that messages can’t deleted. Or so that all messages expire and disappear after a period of time.
I have been disappointed by Signal a lot.
- They tie themselves very closely with Google services, to the point that they refuse to be on FDroid by design
- There was a long period when they stopped publishing server side code when they were bashing others like Telegram for not open sourcing their server side code
- Their Linux desktop client is absolutely horrible.
They tie themselves very closely with Google services, to the point that they refuse to be on FDroid by design
While they do push the Play Store version, they also have an APK, and my understanding is that it does not rely on Google Play Services, though it might be buggier without them. If I recall correctly, the origin of Signal not being on F-Droid was related to the building and signature model that F-Droid used (builds by F-Droid, then signed by F-Droid’s keys), as mentioned in, eg, this issue. With that said, it has been pointed out that there are alternatives, like a separate repository, than, eg, the Guardian Project uses, and F-Droid apparently does now have a process for developer-signed apks.
Their general hostility toward outside developers and forks, however, and that the awkward server side code availability seemed to be related to the brazenly problematic cryptocoin advertisement, are extremely disappointing, however.
Just to confirm what you said, I used Signal on LineageOS for over 6 months with no Google Play Services (installed through Aurora Store) – definitely doesn’t rely on them.
All fair complaints. I’ve managed to switch over all of my contacts to Signal (that I care to talk to, at least).
My biggest gripe is no back up support on iOS, meaning that if I lose my phone I lose everything. People have tried hand waving it away as a privacy feature, but I think backing up messages is a bare minimum for a messaging app - especially with the released of Advanced Data Protection for iCloud.
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What about Matrix? Much better, IMO
Signal frustrates me, because Signal Foundation is clueless on what people actually want and it just feels like their product direction is so baffling it somehow turned into another failed Google messaging app without being a Google product(they even hired a former Google exec to run Signal!) I’ve never touched their crypto or stories, and I thought the SMS support removal makes zero sense and their justification is flimsy at best, it gave me Hangouts flashbacks.
The main problem with removing SMS support isn’t that I can’t convince my friends and family to switch any more(though very annoying), it’s that since Signal has marketed itself as a highly private messaging app, it now has a certain reputation of being used for… particular things. Without SMS support, even having Signal installed on your phone looks suspicious, since you can’t say that you’re using it as a nicer SMS app anymore.
Signal is great for communicating with people you don’t mind sharing your identity with. Would love to see signal implement usernames. I’m really into simpleX chat these days —really cool project.
SimpleX looks interesting, thanks for sharing!
The iOS notification implementation isn’t super reliable yet but it works if you leave the app open
My favorite part is that you can easily self host your own server with a docker container
You can also use their CLI app to send yourself all sorts of notifications from all your selfhosted services. The only really irritating thing is that they won’t provide an arm binary, and compiling the app on arm is… decidedly not easy.
Tried to switch to signal. But it’s useless without everyone i know switching over from Whatsapp. Which is like merged with our country at this point.
Yeah I really wanted to switch to Signal from Whatsapp but people don’t want to try new messaging apps. Nowadays I use telegram but it’s just bots and 2 or 3 friends.
Welcome to life after 40 - I’ve been an early adopter all my life, but my network hasn’t moved with me.
As a result joining Snapchat has no value for me.
So I tend to use apps that are friend-agnostic like this and TIkTok.
Side note: my fave messaging app is Confide, it only reveals redacted words as you run your finger over them, and then deletes. So it’s impossible to screenshot.
It sounds like you’d still be able to take a video of it, then do a little bit of filtering and you’d have an image of the whole message. It’d take slightly more effort, but it’s not “impossible to screenshot.”
It’s not really that tall of an ask to install one more app - especially one that asks for nothing, you’re not taking away anything, you’re adding.
People are weird.
I don’t know. People can’t keep up with everything (like tech privacy news) in life and now out of their 100+ contacts this one person wants them to switch to this different app that nobody else seems to be using.
From their perspective it’s kinda pointless
I just wasn’t budging. Refused to use WhatsApp and texted people instead. Slowly a lot of my friends switched and realised signal is better in every way. Even my parents find it the best as it is the easiest for them to use.
Yeah not going to happen for me unfortunately
I wish they hadn’t gotten rid of SMS though, that was the biggest sell for me over other options. I’m never going to get more than 2 or 3 people I regularly text to switch…
Yes lol same. And because of the verification code that needs to be typed in every so often, my messages never reach them. I have to text them, “hey go to signal”, and then it finally goes through.
Fun fact: on Android after not using an app for more than three months (the exact time can vary by manufacturer) the OS will remove permissions including notifications (suppressing the app’s ability to run in the background) to save battery. So the app will literally stop working.
For a seldom used app like Signal that’s hurt from a lack network effect, this triggers a death spiral outside of the privacy enthusiast community. When it had SMS support this guaranteed some usage, but now that’s gone.
Question though? Why did they get rid of sms functionality?
Because they turned away from the original founder’s philosophy, which is that ‘perfect security’ is a pie-in-the-sky novelty that isn’t actually useful to anyone, and what’s actually important is security that people actually use. Even if it’s slightly less secure, it’s still a net positive because people are actually using it.
When he left, a google CEO took over and frankly it’s just been one terrible decision after another- cryptocurrencies, ‘stories’, stickers, removal of SMS, all kinds of stupid shit that drove people away.
I used to have nearly 50 people on my signal contacts list. Now there are 3.
i too miss this. capture the messaging market, and keep the stock SMS function!
With this move, i am more keen to see matrix make it to the big leagues.
Here in the Netherlands no one uses SMS, purely Whatsapp. So removing this functionality, though often complained about by people presumably from the US, did not hurt functionality at all here. I also like the features like Stories, it’s a direct competition with Instagram/Snapchat, though just like Whatsapp Stories, barely anyone will use it.
Yes I am in the US and I understand that this is a US centric problem though SMS is the feature that set signal apart from other secure messaging apps and made it slightly easier to get people to join. It was a nice alternative to imessage on android as opposed to yet another messaging app. Even in the US I have had to use SMS, WhatsApp, fb messenger, instagram’s DMs, Line, Group me, Matrix, etc, to talk to different people and I was not going to convince many to switch to signal (I tried).
I do not like the fact that Signal requires a phone number to be used. If I want to talk to someone on Signal, I need to give him my Signal registered phone number. I do not understand why can’t they introduce User name like Telegram so we do not have to reveal our phone number to others.
Telegram requires a phone number too. So I don’t understand your point.
It does not require to share it with other people tho. Still as far as I know they save it on their servers. Signal tries to not save any metadata at all. That’s great.
I prefer matrix since no phone number is required for signup there.
I got rid of Signal after they added cryptocurrency to their app.
While I have no issues with cryptocurrency itself, it was a reminder that they have full control over the app. Now I happily use XMPP and Matrix for communication with friends and family.
Random question as Im very interested in using XMPP: Are public homeservers fine as long as you enable encryptions? And is there a list of recommended homeservers?
Im aware you can self host, that just is not an option for me currently
You’re more than welcome to register an account on canchat.org (my server).
And yes, as long as you enable OMEMO encryption, your server provider cannot read your encrypted messages.
https://providers.xmpp.net/ is a good resource for finding a provider (homeserver) as well.
they have full control over the app
Yup, this is also my problem with Signal; you’re stuck with whatever boneheaded decisions the devs make and there’s nothing you can do about it. Personally, my pet peeve is their refusal to add any kind of data export. As someone who likes backing up chat history, this is a dealbreaker for me.
Exactly. I sometimes switch my SIM card between two different phones; Signal makes that process super confusing and awful because your Signal account, on a phone, doesn’t just behave like an account, it has hooks built into your phone and messaging apps. Telegram, on the other hand, lets me set a password and use 2FA via email and then just… log in. Honestly it seems so much simpler I can’t understand what the Signal devs are up to!
Indeed. I opened the Signal app after a really long time last week and found that they had added a useless Stories feature like WhatsApp. I uninstalled the app since I never used it anyways.
Edit: Looks like Signal stories can be turned off unlike WhatsApp stories. That’s a win I guess.
Is this on iPhone? I have regular backups enabled on my android
They’ve had data export for a long time, I helped make exports in support of a lawsuit more than 3 years ago.
If you have android, Molly is great 3rd party client with no nonsense and extra security feature.
I’ve tried it, it’s definitely better. If I absolutely had to use Signal I’d use it through a Matrix bridge.
Ah didn’t know about that. That is a dealbreaker. Too bad, it always looked promising but now it just looks like a scam app.
It’s certainly not a scam, and it is a reliable, private messaging app, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not decentralized/federated, and that’s the issue for me.
I personally prefer apps on the matrix network! Www.Matrix.org has a list of client apps, but I’ve found Element is great on windows, steam deck, and android! Call quality and chat stability can get weird sometimes, but overall it’s very very secure and pretty feature rich! 🙂
From the little bit I researched, it’s kinda similar in the way that the fediverse works! It’s decentralized, and one account works everywhere. Good stuff!
