3 ms·

> The only tangible evolution of signal in the past year has been new cat and dog stickers that no one asked for. I've been asking for them! I've been asking f

> The only tangible evolution of signal in the past year has been new cat and dog stickers that no one asked for. I've been asking for them! I've been asking for them for years, in fact. I'm chuffed that my tiny little crusade finally bore fruit, and that the implementation they landed on is precisely as I always envisioned it. It was the #1 excuse friends made for why they wouldn't consider Signal. But also, personally, I really do get a lot of value out of the sticker system in, say, Telegram, and it's great to have available for my Signal conversations, too.

feanaro 7y ago
What are the use cases for stickers? I cannot seem to get them. They seem to express the ~same thing as emojis while being non-standard and not guaranteed to be available. I guess there might also be some overlap with "gifs", but with less flexibility.
- Legogris 7y ago
  Sticker are fun and can convey nuances and intended personality emojis don't in the same bandwidth. Also always just two taps away in the same place, as opposed to gifs. Depending on your communication style, this may or may not be a feature for you. I have also seen stickers as a hurdle for Signal adoption for years. AFAIK, LINE was the first IM platform to make sticker-use widespread. Imagine you're about to meet up with a friend downtown for a Sunday brunch and the different situations and moods you can encounter on the way, check out their initial starter pack and I think you can see how this can actually make communication more efficient. https://www.line-stickers.com/moon-james/ https://www.line-stickers.com/moon-james/
  - feanaro 7y ago
    So a kind of middle ground between emojis and gifs? That makes sense. I'll admit I still don't find it appealing from any examples I've seen so far and I've never encountered sticker usage "in the wild" with my contacts to get a hands-on feeling of it.
    - Legogris 7y ago
      Yeah, I first encountered them living in East Asia where the majority use them consistently (including foreigners who generally pick it up pretty fast). I'd probably have your stance if I hadn't experienced it IRL.
endorphone 7y ago
"It was the #1 excuse friends made for why they wouldn't consider Signal." I keep reading this claim about stickers and it seems like one of those wishing "if we cover 80% of the feature desires of 100% of the people" delusions. They won't migrate. If the privacy pitch isn't enough, nothing else will succeed. Which is why I agree with GP. Signal's entire raison d'être is privacy. Yet increasingly the updates are "look, we're a kind-of-shittier-version-of-imessages". As an aside, they update way too often. No one would complain about updates for actual privacy or security issues, but the virtually daily updates seem to be primarily "moved stuff around".

feanaro 7y ago

What are the use cases for stickers? I cannot seem to get them. They seem to express the ~same thing as emojis while being non-standard and not guaranteed to be available. I guess there might also be some overlap with "gifs", but with less flexibility.

Legogris 7y ago
Sticker are fun and can convey nuances and intended personality emojis don't in the same bandwidth. Also always just two taps away in the same place, as opposed to gifs. Depending on your communication style, this may or may not be a feature for you. I have also seen stickers as a hurdle for Signal adoption for years. AFAIK, LINE was the first IM platform to make sticker-use widespread. Imagine you're about to meet up with a friend downtown for a Sunday brunch and the different situations and moods you can encounter on the way, check out their initial starter pack and I think you can see how this can actually make communication more efficient. https://www.line-stickers.com/moon-james/ https://www.line-stickers.com/moon-james/
- feanaro 7y ago
  So a kind of middle ground between emojis and gifs? That makes sense. I'll admit I still don't find it appealing from any examples I've seen so far and I've never encountered sticker usage "in the wild" with my contacts to get a hands-on feeling of it.
  - Legogris 7y ago
    Yeah, I first encountered them living in East Asia where the majority use them consistently (including foreigners who generally pick it up pretty fast). I'd probably have your stance if I hadn't experienced it IRL.

endorphone 7y ago

"It was the #1 excuse friends made for why they wouldn't consider Signal." I keep reading this claim about stickers and it seems like one of those wishing "if we cover 80% of the feature desires of 100% of the people" delusions. They won't migrate. If the privacy pitch isn't enough, nothing else will succeed. Which is why I agree with GP. Signal's entire raison d'être is privacy. Yet increasingly the updates are "look, we're a kind-of-shittier-version-of-imessages". As an aside, they update way too often. No one would complain about updates for actual privacy or security issues, but the virtually daily updates seem to be primarily "moved stuff around".