“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. 😀 👍

  • Aftermath6187@vlemmy.net
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • skulblaka@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • GingerKun@vlemmy.net
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        1 year ago

        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?

        • zalack@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          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.

        • Don Corleone@lemmy.world
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          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.

        • hemmes@vlemmy.net
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          1 year ago

          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.

      • DynamoSunshirtSandals@possumpat.io
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        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.

        • HamSwagwich@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          The RCS issue hits the nail on the head I think. It’s really the biggest stumbling block for everyone at this point.

        • Rakn@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • ysjet@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            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.

      • delirium@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I only communicate with two people in signal. I still use it because I genuinely despise Android messenger.

            • Bazoogle@lemmy.world
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              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.

      • ptsdstillinmymind @lemmy.studio
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        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

    • Lumun@lemmy.zip
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      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.

      • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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        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.

    • fatalicus@kbin.social
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      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.

      • constantokra@lemmy.one
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        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.

    • WontonSoup@lemmy.world
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      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

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      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.

    • Magister@lemmy.world
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      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…

    • weedwhacking@lemmy.world
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      I’m very glad they did. It was hard to recommend while they did, it’s a huge security risk! Sms needs to die