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One of the big issues with any messaging system is how to address your recipient. WhatsApp, Signal etc use a phone number. Jabber, irc, etc use other. So, one
by cmroanirgo 7y ago
One of the big issues with any messaging system is how to address your recipient. WhatsApp, Signal etc use a phone number. Jabber, irc, etc use other.
So, one of the problems to bring your use case to life is that you'd need to remember your friends' phone numbers AND you'd need to know that they're on Signal.
Signal, as an app gives your phone the ability to completely replace your sms system seamlessly. If a particular friend doesn't have Signal then it goes via sms.
So, the use case you're mentioning is definitely relevant, but having yama (yet- another- messaging- app) is going head to head with WhatsApp, jabber & co, and not currently what signal seems to be aiming for: secure messaging for the masses.
Maybe in the future it'll add usernames as an address recipient, but it may turn out to be a mess like Skype if so (Am I phoning someone, or skyping? Do i have credits, etc). Currently, Signal clearly delineates in the app ui what's going to happen when you press send (or call).
- cmroanirgo 7y agoThinking out loud some more: usernames are a terrible idea. Maybe using a hash, (like Tox does) is a way to individualize recipients, and meta data: phone, email, etc are then tied to that (eg like keybase does it). This way friends lists can be harvested from the phone (something I'm always wary of) for the masses, whereas privacy conscious ppl can maintain it by giving out a throwaway email address. It means you could set up Signal on multiple phones and not once leak your phone number by using the same hash account. It probably wouldn't even need a password (again, like Tox).