this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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The Signal messenger and protocol.

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Refusing to use Signal: "I have too many messaging apps" (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Not sure if any of you have encountered the same resistance to using Signal. Some of my cousins refused to use Signal because they are already using "too many chat apps" (e.g. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Telegram, Line, Snapchat, etc.). To them, Signal will just be another chat app among their numerous other chat apps. I understand that jumping between so many messaging apps imposes some kind of cognitive and maintenance burden. What are some ways to convince such people to use Signal?

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It was a lot easier to convince people (and myself) to use signal when it also did SMS. When that feature was removed it certainly felt like another app to worry about.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The loss of SMS really diminished Signal's attractiveness as a messaging app. I still use it because moving the few that I have convinced to employ it as a vector for communication to something more obscure would be even more tiresome.

[–] Tangent5280 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Any idea why signal removed the SMS feature?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Basically, supporting SMS and MMS didn't align with their commitment to privacy and security.

https://signal.org/blog/sms-removal-android/

[–] Tangent5280 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's kind of sad, but I suppose they have a point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, a bad one - a hyper-secire app that no one uses doesn't exactly advance secure communications. That plus wasting dev hours on stories are the dumbest moves I've seen the org take and sure enough, all my friends who really only used signal for a few group chats dropped it all together with the SMS change.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I started moving myself away from signal at that point, but I am stuck with it for the same reason. It almost makes me wish I just stayed pure SMS longer so I was not fragmented on messageing apps

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yep. Once SMS was gone then all my contacts left and I had no reason to keep it. I unfortunately had to install WhatsApp as that was where the critical mass was.