“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 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.
Basically, it makes the whole platform less secure because you could accidentally send a non-encrypted message at any time. With SMS-free Signal, at least mistaken sent messages are still E2E encrypted.
Is their goal to become the new de-facto messaging app? Or is their goal to become the most secure messaging app for whistle blowers, etc for whom a single mistake could mean losing their life or their freedom?
Have unsecured messages be opt-in and have a warning banner on non-encrypted messages. Maybe even a confirmation dialog.
That way people who want or need to be that paranoid can be, but the rest of us can have something a bit more convenient.
By disallowing SMS messaging they’ve just made it so a lot of people who were being secure when their contacts allowed, aren’t being secure at all.
If they are so concerned about the privacy and lives of whistleblowers they should implement usernames (and multiple accounts) instead of forcing people to give their cell phone numbers to others.
The use of cell phones in an app supposedly made for dissidents and whistleblowers is the stupidest decision I’ve ever seen.
Yeah, I’m basically in this boat. My OS is what brings my notifications together, and makes clear distinctions between the different apps I utilize. I don’t need one app to do everything. I use signal for sensitive business, having conversations about projects and sending credentials to coworkers. I use Teams for general work conversations. I use iMessage for nearly all other casual conversations - of those maybe 30% are SMS.
As an Android user, all I have to say is fuck iMessage. Dark pattern, anticompetitive piece of shit.
I think you mean Apple. Apple is an anticompetitive. They don’t want people to leave their ecosystem the moment they’ve bought a signal apple product.
Anyone that privacy minded could’ve easily just made any other app their default SMS app.
I still see no reason they ever needed to drop it.
I mean, you can see at least one reason I’m sure
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.
The RCS issue hits the nail on the head I think. It’s really the biggest stumbling block for everyone at this point.
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
Interesting. I use signal with my family, coworkers, and some friends. Never once done drugs, and only a couple people I know that use it did drugs in the past, and didn’t use signal then.
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/