5 ms·

WhatsApp puts advertisers first, users second – time to switch to Signal

28 points by solarengineer 10y ago

K0nserv 10y ago
I've tried to switch to signal, but the lack of a desktop app when using iOS is a major problem for me. I'm probably in the minority with this concern.
- chowraid 10y ago
  I'm also going to be in that minority since I am moving away from android to iPhone.
- offa 10y ago
  Telegram is great for that... but I think their desktop client still doesn't support Secret Chats, which are kind of important if you want encryption.
  - K0nserv 10y ago
    Telegram has gotten a lot of criticism for their crypto though? Kinda on the fence about using it
    - offa 10y ago
      That's what I'm saying, it's by far not the most secure, and if you don't use Secret Chats it's even more so. Convenient, though, and not owned by Facebook. I'm on the fence about it myself, but it's my go-to alternative to Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, not necessarily to Signal.
- AmrEldib 10y ago
  Signal's desktop app is in beta https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop-public/ https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop-public/
  - K0nserv 10y ago
    That only works with an Android phone last I checked
chowraid 10y ago
This are some news I am not happy to hear since I am a really heavy user of WhatsApp. I gues is time to move over to Telegram or I could give Signal Private Messenger a try.
- offa 10y ago
  I use Telegram out of convenience (love their desktop client), but it's definitely not the most secure messenger out there.
eonw 10y ago
anyone with half a brain should have seen this coming.
- chowraid 10y ago
  True. they have to monetize their acquisition somehow. I could now see many angry people getting a bunch of unwanted calls. This should be fun to see unravel.
NameNickHN 10y ago
The question is not which messenger is better but how to get users to move away from What's app.
lazybreather 10y ago
Tried installing Signal. It was asking for a bazillion permissions. I can use xprivacy and evade those but I dont understand why such a privacy concerned service needs so many permissions from users.
pitaj 10y ago
With Signal, there is no way to see who has received or read messages, which is especially annoying considering that they have a "mark as read" button on the notification (at least on Android). This is terrible for group chats, because you can never tell where people are in the conversation. Allo, Hangouts, FBM, and WhatsApp have this feature, why not Signal? Well, the developers say it would lead to reduced overall privacy. But that's only if you make it apply to every chat by default, when they could fairly easily just make it so the user can specify if they want "read" status sent per chat. This is restricting Signal from being used at least by my group of friends, when we are all very privacy minded. We want to use Signal, but features that are just lacking like the inability to have "read" status in groups is holding it back.

28 points by solarengineer 10y ago

I've tried to switch to signal, but the lack of a desktop app when using iOS is a major problem for me. I'm probably in the minority with this concern.

chowraid 10y ago
I'm also going to be in that minority since I am moving away from android to iPhone.
offa 10y ago
Telegram is great for that... but I think their desktop client still doesn't support Secret Chats, which are kind of important if you want encryption.
- K0nserv 10y ago
  Telegram has gotten a lot of criticism for their crypto though? Kinda on the fence about using it
  - offa 10y ago
    That's what I'm saying, it's by far not the most secure, and if you don't use Secret Chats it's even more so. Convenient, though, and not owned by Facebook. I'm on the fence about it myself, but it's my go-to alternative to Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, not necessarily to Signal.
AmrEldib 10y ago
Signal's desktop app is in beta https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop-public/ https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop-public/
- K0nserv 10y ago
  That only works with an Android phone last I checked

chowraid 10y ago

This are some news I am not happy to hear since I am a really heavy user of WhatsApp. I gues is time to move over to Telegram or I could give Signal Private Messenger a try.

offa 10y ago
I use Telegram out of convenience (love their desktop client), but it's definitely not the most secure messenger out there.

eonw 10y ago

anyone with half a brain should have seen this coming.

chowraid 10y ago
True. they have to monetize their acquisition somehow. I could now see many angry people getting a bunch of unwanted calls. This should be fun to see unravel.

NameNickHN 10y ago

The question is not which messenger is better but how to get users to move away from What's app.

lazybreather 10y ago

Tried installing Signal. It was asking for a bazillion permissions. I can use xprivacy and evade those but I dont understand why such a privacy concerned service needs so many permissions from users.

pitaj 10y ago

With Signal, there is no way to see who has received or read messages, which is especially annoying considering that they have a "mark as read" button on the notification (at least on Android). This is terrible for group chats, because you can never tell where people are in the conversation. Allo, Hangouts, FBM, and WhatsApp have this feature, why not Signal? Well, the developers say it would lead to reduced overall privacy. But that's only if you make it apply to every chat by default, when they could fairly easily just make it so the user can specify if they want "read" status sent per chat. This is restricting Signal from being used at least by my group of friends, when we are all very privacy minded. We want to use Signal, but features that are just lacking like the inability to have "read" status in groups is holding it back.