this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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The Signal messenger and protocol.
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It's a shame that Signal has discontinued its support for normal SMS, hadn't implemented RCS, is spending too much effort on "stickers" and now keeps prodding you to donate money. Then there's the broken notification with iOS users who just don't find out that you messaged them until they launch the app.
As a direct result my use of Signal has pretty much ceased.
I think they already fixed the IOS notification issue, at least for the beta/testflight version. But yes, I agree with you that their priorities as of late have been head-scratching.
I suppose their focus has been on bringing signal in line with other contemporary messengers to give it a similar level of appeal as something like WhatsApp, targeted towards "regular (and not necessarily privacy focused) people".
I admit i really miss SMS integration, that sort of made it Android's answer to iMessage, except that it's still available cross platform.
Glad for the addition of user names at least.
I can't blame them for asking for money, it's a free app but it isn't free to run.
That said the notifications are royally annoying. My partner has an android, but calls almost never come through and messages are hit and miss.
Asking for money is one thing. Asking for money after removing functionality that I depended on is quite a different thing.
To be clear, I voiced my concerns in writing and was ignored.
This comment reads kind of weird, as if you feel personally snubbed that they "ignored" your concerns when in reality the app developers just had different ideas about what direction the app would go in.
Like, that's totally fine! At the end of the day if you were only interested in a replacement SMS app then Signal just wasn't for you. As someone whose primary interest is the security and privacy guaranteed by Signal not only encrypting messages but also message metadata (something Google's RCS explicitly does NOT do) I'm perfectly satisfied with how it functions.
That said, I don't care about stickers or the weird crypto integration, but it satisfies my other needs and includes a desktop client to boot, so I have nothing to complain about.
I really wish Signal still had SMS support because the network effect was a lot more powerful, and it was easier to "sell" to my friends, back when it was that way.
I wrote it to preempt comments about complaining without telling anyone about my concerns.
I completely understand your view and agree that Signal went in a different direction than I wanted or needed.
I didn't use it as a primary SMS replacement, rather that was the "hook" to get a bigger customer base amongst my contacts whilst sneaking encryption capabilities in by the back door.
I mentioned RCS because a messaging app that integrates with the common platform of SMS and RCS would bring end-to-end encryption capabilities to even more people. I could imagine integration with other messaging protocols too.
The original UI for Signal made it very clear if something was encrypted or not. Right until someone decided to introduce custom colour for each chat, essentially killing the clearest indication of security level.
A smarter person would have changed colour depending on level of privacy for example.
The crypto donation was just weird and put me off ever even considering making one.
Same here re. calls not sounding. Or lately, the call connects, but my mic doesn't work. We have to hang up and call back, then it'll work. Infuriating.
What phone do you have? have you taken a look at this? https://dontkillmyapp.com/
In their defence: SMS is not secure enough for Signal standards
This was never the expectation. It provided a unified messaging interface and a shallow barrier to entry for people used to SMS.
I could install Signal on a phone for a neophyte user and they could use it as their normal SMS app. Then you could securely message them in the same interface and all of a sudden their messages between you would be secure.
Isn't that a vulnerability ? if a non-technical person has Signal as their main messaging program (including sms) aren't they at risk of not being able to tell when their messages are actually secure and when they aren't ?
I used it as well on my Android, and the UI made it pretty clear when you were sending 'unencrypted' texts to someone.
You're looking at it through the eyes of a competent user. It's obvious to us. It's not trivial to the general population. Just ask most iOS users what the difference is between green/blue bubbles - they have no idea other than "one sucks and means they use Android"
alright
I always thought it was missing the bridge between "SMS on your phone" and "messages on any paired device". Y u no sync SMS to my desktop client and allow responses :(
Because that would require your desktop sending the message to your phone and having your phone actually send it. The device with the SIM card needs to be the one that actually sends the SMS.
I used their SMS integration for a while and it was quite awful if memory serves, I went back to the native client. I still use signal on its own.
That's odd, I used it for years and it served me well.
SMS is not a secure way to communicate and shouldn’t be in Signal, it was a mistake from the beginning.
Another android user here. What you say is true but doesn't matter. I also stopped using Signal when sms was dropped. For some people a unified app that wasn't Google or WhatsApp was what we needed.
I disagree.
Signal is supposed to be a secure alternative to SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, etc. Compatibility with less secure protocols is antithetical to that. Adding popular features of those other apps to be more competitive is how you forward the goal. (Ofc fixing bugs should come first)
While this does suck for those of us who used it, it was the cause of a few issues:
Signal cannot implement RCS on Android without Google providing an API like they did with SMS. Apple doesn't even allow alternative SMS clients so this made no sense going forward - basically SMS/MMS/RCS is a dead-end for Signal.
What year is this? Signal stickers were released at the end of 2019 [0] and, in the nearly five years since, the work to maintain them is so small it may as well be zero. Check github - the work they release is public and you can see exactly what they've been working on.
Its a free service, god forbid they ask users to contribute so they can continue to exist and provide said service to those who can't afford it? 🤷♀️
Valid criticism IF true. I don't have an iOS device so I can't say much here but I do message iOS users pretty frequently and haven't had any problem with response times - not sure if that's because they're always on their phone or because notifications work in most cases.
While unfortunate for your privacy, if you were primarily using Signal for SMS, you weren't really using Signal to begin with.
[0] https://signal.org/blog/make-privacy-stick/